The University reported that 
emergency student funding from 
the 
federal 
Coronavirus 
Aid, 
Relief and Economic Security 
Act has been awarded to approxi-
mately 5 percent of eligible stu-
dents as of Tuesday.
The CARES Act, which offered 
emergency grants to institutions 
of higher education to counteract 
the effects of the pandemic, pro-
vided $25.2 million to the Univer-
sity of Michigan-Ann Arbor with 
the condition that at least half of 
the allocated funds be distributed 
to students for emergency finan-
cial aid. The act requires universi-
ties to report how many students 
received grants and how much 
funding has been distributed 30 
days after accepting the federal 
aid.
Students at the University who 
were eligible to receive support 
from the CARES Act funding 
received an email with the appli-
cation details in early May. The 
funds are intended to address 
COVID-19 expenses that arose 
after the outbreak.
The University published the 
current data on the Office of Bud-
get and Planning website on Tues-
day, reaffirming a minimum of 
$12,622,026 in emergency grants 
will go to students.
The page states $2,712,486 of 
the $12,622,026 has been awarded 
to students, about 21.49 percent of 
the total available financial aid. Of 
the estimated 39,388 eligible stu-
dents, 1,997 have received emer-
gency grants, which is roughly 5 
percent.
Several other large universities 
have already distributed a larger 
percentage of their emergency 
financial aid to a larger percent-
age of eligible students. The Uni-
versity of California at Berkeley 
reported 
it 
distributed 
about 
86.26 percent of its emergency 
aid mandated for students to 
68.38 percent of eligible students. 
Wayne State University disclosed 

they distributed 41.34 percent of 
its CARES funding to 32.28 per-
cent of eligible students. 
At 
Michigan 
State 
Univer-
sity, CARES funding has run out 
because 
applications 
request-
ing aid “far exceeded available 
dollars and the funds are now 
exhausted,” according to MSU’s 
Office of Financial Aid.
In an email to The Daily, 
University 
spokeswoman 
Kim 
Broekhuizen 
explained 
the 
administration 
is 
distributing 
the emergency funds with the 
intention of supporting eligible 
students from the winter 2020 
semester through winter 2021.
“The act instructs institutions 
to award funding for expenses 
related to COVID-19 caused by the 
disruption of campus instruction 
and to do so for the duration of 
one year,” Broekhuizen said. “The 
University is making decisions 
based on the needs expressed by 
applicants, their eligibility for 
funds and the University’s need to 
provide funds to a potential large 
number of students over a long 
period of time. The process will 
evolve as the University moves 
through the next year.”
In an email to The Daily, Pub-
lic Health student Anthony Dang 
said he applied to receive emer-
gency aid in early May because 
his paid internship opportunity, 
which would have covered his 
summer expenses, was canceled 
and he was only receiving a sti-
pend from a different internship. 
Dang received nearly the entire 
amount in funding he requested 
and said it would help cover his 
rent.
“Now that I have funding I am 
extremely relieved about surviv-
ing for the rest of the summer,” 
Dang wrote. “I was currently 
looking for a part-time job to do 
in addition to my full-time intern-
ship, but stopped at the moment 
knowing that I have these emer-
gency funds.”

3

Thursday, June 4, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com NEWS

Only a woman’s cry stopped the 
march that halted traffic along 
Washtenaw Avenue Thursday, as 
hundreds of community mem-
bers protested police brutality 
after a video surfaced of a white 
Washtenaw County sheriff’s dep-
uty appearing to punch Sha’Tenia 
Grady El, a Black woman, in the 
head multiple times during an 
arrest early Tuesday morning in 
Ypsilanti Township. As the sobs 
of Ypsilanti resident Ann Diggins, 
Grady El’s sister, pierced through 
the crowd, protesters paused. The 
drum beats and chants of “no jus-
tice, no peace” and “Black lives 
matter” fell silent. Then, after a few 
moments in her niece’s embrace, 
Diggins and the marchers pressed 
on. With a national spotlight 
focused on race and policing in the 
wake of George Floyd’s death, Dig-
gins said the recent incident in her 
hometown has not left her mind.
“I haven’t slept in three days,” 
Diggins said. “Every time I fucking 
close my eyes, all I fucking see is 
that man putting his hands on my 
sister, and I just can’t deal with it 
no more. I can’t hold in my anger. I 

tried and it’s not working. I’m try-
ing to do this shit the right way, and 
it’s not working.”
Organized by the non-profit Sur-
vivors Speak, the protesters first 
gathered at the Washtenaw County 
Sheriff’s Office in Ann Arbor to lis-
ten to speakers for about two hours, 
then marched onto Washtenaw 
Avenue and a surrounding neigh-
borhood. Police blocked off about a 
mile of Washtenaw Avenue, as well 
as both directions of U.S Highway 
23 overhead. 
Daniyal Grady El, Sha’Tenia’s 
husband, was tasered during the 
incident and also arrested early 
Tuesday morning. He said after he 
and his wife were released from 
the Washtenaw County Jail, the 
Taylor Police Department picked 
up Sha’Tenia to take her to Wayne 
County Jail on an alleged warrant. 
“Taylor (Police Department) had 
no reason to come pick her up after 
she just been abused,” Grady El said. 
“She should have been allowed to go 
to the hospital and take care of her-
self and get her wounds taken care 
of. And then for Taylor to send her 
to Wayne County, and have Wayne 
County wrap her up in their system 
is just ridiculous, especially during 
COVID-19. They’re not supposed to 
be bringing anybody new into the 
court system, into the jails, unless 
they’ve committed an actual crime. 
And so it’s just a travesty going on 
the legal system right now.”
According to a Facebook post, 

Sha’Tenia Grady El has been 
released from the Wayne County 
Jail as of Friday afternoon. 
Grady El also expressed anger 
and frustration at his wife’s treat-
ment in the initial incident. 
“Those police officers had no 
right to do anything that they did,” 
Grady El said. “The abuse, the pun-
ishment that she took at the hands 
of that officer and whoever else was 
involved with those officers should 
be handled in a correct manner, 
and not being investigated by their 
own people. They need to be inves-
tigated from outside.”
Jason Robinson, a pastor at 
Reach Church in Ypsilanti, said 
Floyd’s death in Minneapolis and 
the incident in Ypsilanti Town-
ship provoked the community to 
demand a change in policing cul-
ture. 
“If you have a culture where 
officers can step over that line, 
but there’s no repercussions, then 
it keeps happening over and over 
and over,” Robinson said. “But if 
you have a culture where people 
know the community will rise up, 
then officers will think twice about 
those 
moments 
of 
frustration, 
those moments of anger and just 
those moments of just downright 
racist bigotry in our communities. 
So the goal of it is creating a culture 
where this will not be tolerated.”

Local incident in Ypsilanti 
sparks demands for change

CALDER LEWIS
Summer News Editor

Courtesy of Calder Lewis

5% of CARES Act 
5% of CARES Act 
funding awarded
funding awarded

ARJUN THAKKAR
Daily Staff Reporter

Read more at michigandaily.com
Read more at michigandaily.com

Out of 39,388 eligible students, the 
University reported 1,997 received grants

Washtenaw Avenue 
flooded with protesters 
for Grady Els

