In an effort to assist the state 

of Michigan community groups 
and lawyers as they navigate the 
overflow of legal work related to 
the COVID-19 pandemic, a group 
of University of Michigan Law 
School student leaders formed 
the Michigan Law COVID Corps, 
a pro bono service with over 240 
volunteers and student attorneys.

The 
organization 
does 
not 

offer legal advice or represen-
tation. Rather, volunteers offer 
assistance in the form of legal or 
policy research, data gathering or 
legal analysis. COVID Corps has 
worked with a variety of organi-
zations, including the Michigan 
Workers’ Rights Clinic and Michi-
gan Immigrant Rights Center, who 
requested their help through their 
online form. 

Law 
School 
student 
Maiya 

Moncino founded the group in 
March. Moncino said she felt it 
was necessary for students to step 
up and help lawyers combat the 
shockwaves of the pandemic dur-
ing this unprecedented time. 

“It’s important for us to be 

invested in the community that 
is giving us a legal education,” 
Moncino said.

The COVID Corps is organized 

into four task forces: Decarcera-
tion, Workers’ Rights and Small 
Business Support, Voting Rights 
and Housing Rights. While the 
COVID Corps focuses on those 
issues, they are not limited to 
them.

Law School student Sian Last 

is a COVID Corps participant and 
has worked on two projects since 
joining the group. Last drafted a 
petition to release an incarcerated 
person from prison who had previ-
ously been granted parole but was 
being held due to the new COVID-
19 procedures, and he compiled 
research regarding the release of 
immigrant detainees. 

“The really powerful thing 

about being a lawyer and being a 
law student is the ability to help 
people better their situation, espe-

cially in a time when things are as 
difficult as they are,” Last said. “It 
seemed like there was nothing bet-
ter to do with my time than to try 
and help people in whatever way 
is possible to navigate these sys-
tems.”

Law School students Chris 

Chorzepa and Stephan Llerena are 
two of six leaders on the Workers’ 
Rights and Small Business Support 
task force. 

Over 1 million Michigan resi-

dents have filed for unemployment, 
leaving the Michigan Workers’ 
Rights Clinic overwhelmed with 
individuals in need of assistance 
filing for unemployment insurance 
benefits. Llerena said because the 
Law School allows first-year stu-
dents to participate in the Work-
ers’ Rights Clinic, volunteers are 
equipped to support attorneys 
with research and intake calls. 

Chorzepa was inspired to create 

the Small Business task force after 
researching relief options to keep 
his own family’s small business 
afloat. He knew the U.S. Small 
Business 
Administration 
was 

offering loans to help small busi-
nesses survive in the pandemic, so 
he learned how to file an applica-
tion to receive the loan. 

“I thought, if I can do this for 

my parents, I can definitely do this 
for small businesses around Mich-
igan,” Chorzepa said.

Kerry Martin, a recent Law 

School graduate who has been 
working at Michigan Immigrant 
Rights Center since January, has 
delegated two projects to the vol-
unteers. Martin said that with 
the help of the volunteers, MIRC 
is able to address extra research 
projects the center may not have 
been able to tackle due to the high 
influx of work. 

“This volunteer corps comes at 

such an important time because 
so many legal service organiza-
tions are working in overdrive to 
respond to the crisis,” Martin said. 
“Already, our creative muscles are 
at limit because there’s so many 
ways in which this crisis deepens 
the underlying issues and also the 
procedural obstacles for our cli-
ents to get some form or relief or 
justice.”

2

Thursday, May 21, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
NEWS

COVID Corps helps 
lighten legal work

Approximately 7,200 freshmen 

are expected to begin taking 
classes 
at 
the 
University 
of 

Michigan in the fall, a 20 percent 
increase from the target class size 
six years ago.

The 
University 
was 
500 

students over target when 6,532 
enrolled in the fall 2014 freshman 
class. In response, University 
leadership introduced a plan to 
ensure an end to the trend of over-
enrolling seen in previous years.

Now, the University is prepared 

to have 7,182 freshmen — its target 
class size — enrolled starting in 
the fall 2020 semester, according 
to an email from University 
spokesperson 
Rick 
Fitzgerald. 

Having a larger class size required 
more students to be admitted than 
in previous years, Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald 
said 
this 
larger 

target allows the University to 
lessen the effect COVID-19 could 
have on the class size. While he 
said that the matriculation rate 
has increased, the University is 
watching for “summer melt,” a 
term that refers to when students 
pay a deposit in spring but 
ultimately decide not to attend the 
school before fall.

A class size of 6,000 students 

would fall below the high-6,000 
number the University brought 

in over the past three years. For 
comparison, the University’s goal 
size for the fall 2020 class would 
include one additional student to 
every five in the fall 2014 target 
size.

The concerns with having 

6,500 students in the class were 
partially rooted in West Quad, one 
of the largest dorms, being under 
renovation. But the University 
also had to expand its academic 
offerings to accommodate the 
additional students: LSA added 
86 class sections and the College 
of 
Engineering 
hired 
more 

instructors to teach additional 
discussion sections for first-year 
courses.

There is the question, then, as 

to if these same issues arise with a 
class of 7,182 — 700 larger than the 
6,500-person class that spurred 
these additions. Fitzgerald said 
they will not.

The University is simply more 

strategic when determining a 
class size than it was six years 
ago, Fitzgerald said, and the class 
was 
“purposefully 
increased” 

after consulting with the Office 
of 
Enrollment 
Management, 

Office of the Provost and the 
University’s colleges and schools. 
He also pointed to the fact that 
University-wide enrollment has 
grown over the last several years. 
University 
administrators 
and 

enrollment managers are hopeful 
the larger class size will also ease 
any potential impacts COVID-19 
could have on the class size.

7,200 freshmen 
expected to attend

Read more at michigandaily.com

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Daily Staff Reporter

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Daily News Editor

Design by Hibah Chughtai. Each person represents 1,200 people.

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The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through 

Friday during the fall and winter terms by students at the University 

of Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. 

Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office for $2 per 

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subscription rate. Subscriptions must be prepaid. 

Target class size 

increases by 20% amid 
enrollment concerns

240 volunteers and law 
students assist lawyers 

during pandemic

