The Daily spoke with Sen. Gary 
Peters, D-Mich., on July 24 about 
his re-election campaign to the 
U.S. Senate, the federal govern-
ment’s COVID-19 response and 
racial inequality. John James is 
the Republican nominee running 
against Peters for the Senate seat 
in this November’s election. The 
James campaign declined multiple 
requests for an interview.
This interview has been edited 
and condensed for clarity.
TMD: Why should young peo-
ple, and college students in par-
ticular, be excited about your 
campaign?
GP: Well, a big focus for my 
campaign is to make sure higher 
education is affordable for all stu-
dents. No matter who they are, 
no matter where they live, they 
should have the opportunity to 
achieve their version of the Ameri-
can Dream and get the education 
they need in order to do that. That 
means we need to make college 
education more affordable. One 
way I’m working to do that is for 
those students who are taking out 
student loans, we need to lower 
the interest rate for student loans. 
At a time with record low interest 
rates, the rates that students pay 
should also be tied to those lower 
rates. That’s why I worked on leg-
islation with Elizabeth Warren to 
lower those rates and we’ll contin-
ue to work to get that passed, but 
getting that passed will require a 
Democratic majority in the Sen-
ate. We’re going to keep working 
on that. Additionally to that, for 
those students, it’s not just about 
taking loans. We should expand 
Pell (Grant) eligibility, so that stu-
dents can get the grants they need 
to pursue their education and not 
be saddled with high loans.
The other issue that is critically 
important to me and one we have 
to be focused on as a society — and 
one that’s going to particularly 
impact students in the years ahead 
— that’s the existential threat of 
climate change. I am passionate 

about protecting our environ-
ment and understand that climate 
change is a critical issue. We have 
to set ambitious goals to reduce 
carbon emissions and do common 
sense things like put the United 
States back into the Paris Accord 
after Donald Trump pulled us out 
of the Paris Accord. The United 
States needs to be a leader in deal-
ing with climate change and we 
need folks who are passionate 
about it in elected office, and that’s 
me.
TMD: Where would you place 
yourself in today’s Democratic 
Party, ideologically?
GP: Well, I think folks would 
consider that I would be a moder-
ate Democrat, somebody who is 
willing to work in a bipartisan way 
in order to get things done, but 
is also a proud Democrat, a very 
proud Democrat. I think part of 
that — the fact that I’m willing to 
work in a bipartisan way— is that 
I do believe that we have to get 
things done. 
Government has to actually 
come together in order to solve the 
very tough problems that we face 
as a society. There is an organiza-
tion called the Center for Effective 
Lawmaking. It is a nonpartisan 
center that was put together by the 
folks at Vanderbilt University and 
the University of Virginia. And 
they actually ranked all senators 
and congresspeople based on their 
effectiveness, which means their 
ability to get legislation passed... 
The last ranking they put out was 
the last Congress, and out of the 
48 Democratic Senators in the U.S. 
Senate, I was ranked the fourth 
most effective. And that’s in my 
first term (as a senator) in Wash-
ington (D.C.),and in the U.S. Sen-
ate, seniority matters. The longer 
you’re there, the more ability you 
have to get things done. And yet 
just in just my first term, I was 
ranked the fourth most effective.
TMD: As a member of the fed-
eral government, how would you 
evaluate the federal government’s 

4

Thursday, August 13, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
NEWS

The University of Michigan 
recently announced students must 
adhere to a mandatory two-week 
quarantine before they arrive on 
campus in the fall. This policy 
received criticism from students 
who are currently working and 
those who are living in on-campus 
housing. 
Business junior Kayla Hurd said 
in a tweet that the University’s 
reopening plans do not consider 
low-income students who have in-
person jobs.
Business sophomore Madelyn 
Larson worked as a pool atten-
dant all summer and said the 
announcement of the two-week 
quarantine came very late, not 
giving her enough time to give her 
boss a two-week advance notice.
“It was very much just a blanket 
statement,” Larson said. “I under-
stand that (the administration) 
have obviously a lot going on … but 
I think that advance notice could 
have been given since they have 
known since March that there is a 
pandemic.”
LSA sophomore Riann English 
also voiced concerns about the 

mandatory 
quarantine, 
saying 
there was no way the University 
could determine whether some-
one has followed the proper proto-
col of enhanced social distancing. 
“I think, in theory, it’s a good 
idea, but in practice and in reality, 
(you) cannot control what people 
do,” English said. “You don’t know 
where other people have been or 
what they’re carrying.”
University spokeswoman Kim 
Broekhuizen directed The Daily 
in an email to the enhanced 
social distancing section of the 
announcement sent Monday. She 
also wrote that students who are 
in Ann Arbor are allowed to break 
their quarantine to work. 
“Students are not prohibited 
from working once they are in 
Ann Arbor,” Broekhuizen wrote. 
“This 14-day period of enhanced 
social distancing is designed to 
minimize the spread of COVID-
19 as our students return to Ann 
Arbor from all over the country.”
Working on campus will also 
likely look different this fall as 
many campus employees — includ-
ing students — will continue to 
work remotely if they are able. 
Larson further explained how 
the guideline puts low-income 
students at a disadvantage of con-
tracting COVID-19 and losing pay.
“On top of the 1.9 percent 
tuition increase, the jobs that are 
available are much more likely 
to be in-person, necessary jobs 

which are obviously more risky 
and could lead to coming into 
contact with somebody who is 
positive (for COVID-19) and then 
you’re gonna have to take another 
two weeks (off),” Larson said.
Some students also expressed 
concerns 
about 
the 
upcom-
ing semester and the risk of the 
COVID-19 virus spreading on 
campus, including in dorms and 
community spaces such as frat 
houses. LSA sophomore Rakira 
Urquhart said she was worried 
about the confined dorm spaces 
on campus.
“I know that the room sizes are 
like 12 by 12, so it just didn’t make 
sense to me that, you know, they 
were going to have people living to 
people in such a small space with 
everything going on,” Urquhart 
said. “Who knows what my room-
mate, or what I would do … outside 
of the room?”
English also noted she doesn’t 
understand why there are not 
more 
restrictions 
on 
housing 
given the current COVID-19 pan-
demic. 
“I feel like everyone should be 
in a single,” English said. “I know 
the other universities have tried 
to do that, to a certain extent — in 
my knowledge — but (Michigan) 
hasn’t done that in any capacity at 
all.”

Students criticize mandatory 
two-week quarantine, housing 

VARSHA VEDAPUDI
Daily Staff Reporter

Design by Hibah Chugtai

In Conversation 
with Gary Peters

CALDER LEWIS
Summer News Editor

Read more at michigandaily.com

Michigan Senator and The Daily discuss 
COVID-19, student loans and police reform

University policy prevents 
 
working before classes 
start

Read more at michigandaily.com

