The Board of Regents held its 

sixth meeting of the year Thursday 
afternoon to hear from public com-
menters urging the University of 
Michigan to consider student input 
on administrative decisions and to 
continue expanding plans for an in-
residence academic year.

All Regents, except Regent Kath-

erine White (D), and University 
executive officers were present for 
the meeting. This was the first 
meeting in which Regents Denise 
Ilitch (D) and Jordan Acker (D) 
served as chair and vice chair of the 
board.

During 
the 
regular 
agenda, 

University President Mark Schlis-
sel announced he was appointing 
Susan M. Collins to the position 
of University Provost and Execu-
tive Vice President for Academic 
Affairs. Collins began serving as 
acting Provost, and later interim 
Provost, shortly after former Pro-
vost Martin Philbert was placed 
on administrative leave and later 
removed amid allegations of sexual 
misconduct.

Schlissel also commented on the 

recently mandated facemask policy, 
which requires everyone on campus 
grounds to wear a face covering. 

“The research is clear that wear-

ing a face covering is one of the 
most effective tools we have for 
preventing the spread of COVID-
19 and saving lives,” Schlissel said. 
“It’s difficult to maintain distance 
from groups even when outdoors on 
a busy University campus, and so, 
face coverings outdoors will help 
slow the spread of the virus as well.” 

Schlissel said he was pleased to 

hear the Department of Homeland 
Security policy that required inter-
national students taking exclusively 
online classes to leave the U.S. was 
revoked, meaning international stu-
dents will be permitted to remain 
in the country if their classes are all 
remote. He referenced the amicus 
brief the University filed in support 
of Harvard University and Massa-

chusetts Institute of Technology’s 
lawsuit to block the regulation.

“International 
students 
are 

core members of our institutions,” 
Schlissel said. “They make valuable 
contributions in our classrooms, 
campuses and communities, con-
tributions that have helped make 
American education the envy of 
the world. International students 
contribute to a diversity of thought 
background and experience that 
promotes learning outcomes and 
better prepares students for an 
increasingly diverse workforce and 
society. We strongly disagree with 
arbitrary restrictions on interna-
tional students that might force 
them to risk their health in order to 
continue their studies.”

Twelve members from the Uni-

versity community were permit-
ted to address the regents during 
the public comment portion of the 
event. The speakers discussed the 
idea of student representation on 
the board, plans for the upcoming 
in-person semester and efforts to 
provide adequate funding to the 
Flint and Dearborn campuses. 

During the June 29 special 

Regents meeting, University Presi-
dent Mark Schlissel announced 
the Flint and Dearborn campuses 
would receive a shared $20 million 
fund, double the $10 million that 
was previously allocated in the bud-
get presented at the June 25 meet-
ing.

Engineering Junior Labiba Qazi, 

vice president of Dearborn Stu-
dent Government and member of 
One University, an organization 
advocating for equitable funding 
at the University’s three campuses, 
argued for transparency with the 
designated resources. Qazi empha-
sized the University should use 
the funding to prioritize students’ 
needs. She referred to a May 2020 
proposal published by 1U that called 
on the administration to extend the 
Go Blue Guarantee and Diversity, 
Equity and Inclusion initiatives to 
Dearborn and Flint.

3

Thursday, July 23, 2020

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com NEWS

Adrienne Lapidos commuted 

to her office for work before the 
COVID-19 pandemic began in 
Michigan. But like many oth-
ers over the past several months, 
she transitioned to working from 
home. As a clinical assistant pro-
fessor of psychiatry at the Uni-
versity of Michigan, Lapidos now 
primarily sees her patients via 
video visits instead of in-person.

Though urgent cases are still 

seen in-person, Lapidos’ depart-
ment shifted to majority telemedi-
cine in late March. She told The 
Daily the change was unexpected.

“It pretty much caught all of us 

by surprise how quickly the tran-
sition happened from in-person 
to video visits,” Lapidos said. “It 
had been a really major goal to 
increase uptake of video visits this 
year, but adoption was not wide-
spread until after COVID started.”

Steven Leber, Medical Doctor 

and professor of pediatrics and 
neurology, said video visits are 
advantageous to patients in selec-
tive cases where transportation is 
a barrier. Leber added moving to 
video visits also helps with social 

distancing guidelines.

“Because of social distancing, 

we’re really limiting how many 
patients come into the clinic,” 
Leber said.

Medical School student Lauren 

Gaston-Hawkins said since medi-
cal students were given a directive 
from the Association of American 
Medical Colleges in mid-March to 
pause clinical rotations, the tran-
sition to telemedicine was a great 
idea but difficult to implement.

“At the beginning, I was some-

what neutral about the change,” 
Gaston-Hawkins said. “I thought 
it was a great opportunity to 
propel the use of telemedicine 
forward, but the transition was 
difficult since we didn’t have the 
infrastructure in place previous-
ly.”

Gaston-Hawkins 
noted 
that 

even though medical students 
weren’t incorporated in telemedi-
cine visits until June 8, she’s had 
the opportunity to help transition 
prenatal patient visits to video in 
her department since mid-March. 

Although 
telemedicine 
was 

fairly new to many clinicians, 
including Leber and Lapidos, the 
concept was pioneered by Rashid 
Bashshur, head of telemedicine 
and professor emeritus of health 
management and policy at the 
School of Public Health.

According to Bashshur, tele-

medicine was first used in 1905 by 
a Dutch physician to transmit EKG 

sounds via a telephone. Bashshur 
was commissioned by the Nation-
al Science Foundation in the early 
1970s to research the capabilities 
and viability of telemedicine.

“Interest was very meager at 

that time,” Bashshur said. “But 
I thought the idea had merit and 
we had to investigate it to find out 
what that merit was and (to) see if 
we want to proceed on that basis.”

Bashshur said inefficient and 

expensive 
technology 
initially 

made telemedicine difficult to use. 
However, once technology began 
to develop, the Centers for Medi-
care & Medicaid Services began to 
place constraints on the new con-
cept. Insurance companies did the 
same. Some restrictions, including 
only allowing patients from rural 
zip codes to use telemedicine, 
were overturned due to COVID-
19. As the pandemic began to
unravel, Bashshur said there was a 
wave of new regulations that made 
it easier for patients to access tele-
medicine resources.

“The pandemic opened the 

floodgates 
of 
telemedicine 

because we had to implement 
mitigation efforts to slow the rate 
of infection and the separation of 
people became critical,” Bashshur 
said. “In addition, keeping health 
care workers safe from the infec-
tion was important.”

Health clinicians discuss 
future of telemedicine

MICHAL RUPRECHT

Daily Staff Reporter

Design by Hibah Chughtai

Public commenters 
Public commenters 
call ‘U’ to action
call ‘U’ to action

ARJUN THAKKAR &
LEXIE GREENBERG

Daily Staff Reporters

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

Regents listen to concerns about funding, 

testing capabilities and student representation.

The pandemic opens 
up new possibilities of 
virtual doctor visits

