A

mid the global COVID-19 pan-
demic, the American people are 
struggling to find a healthy rou-
tine. Across the country, people are reck-
lessly jumping the gun, looking to return 
to pre-pandemic life while their fellow 
American brothers and sisters die. Bars 
and restaurants are packed, parties rage 
and crowds gather with reckless aban-
don, often without masks. Our immedi-
ate future seems bleak and irredeemable. 
These pivotal times, while uncertain, 
present an opportunity to explore the 
potential good of humanity. In the Unit-
ed States, from large corporations to 
small businesses, people are working to 
mitigate the devastating impact of this 
virus. Any innovation, from the simplic-
ity of curbside pickup to the advanced 
science of vaccine development, pushes 
us toward the light at the end of the 
tunnel. Many manufacturers — includ-
ing the auto industry — have switched 
gears to provide our hospitals with ven-
tilators and face shields. Non-essential 
workspaces have closed their doors and 
switched to contactless business mod-
els. Grocery delivery has minimized 
the number of people in public spaces. 
Video interface technology has made at-
home work possible for countless peo-
ple, saving countless lives. Nevertheless, 
we have not done enough. The novel 
coronavirus continues to wreak havoc 
on our country. Thousands are dying. 
Yet, we press on. The University of 
Michigan’s leaders have concocted a 
plan for hybrid and in-person classes, 
for moving into apartments and dorm 
rooms and for finding public spaces to 
study. They have sent emails detailing 
plans for a “safe” return, stressing the 
importance of masks, social distancing 
and have encouraged a self-imposed 
quarantine before returning to campus. 
Our schedules have been altered, spring 
break is no longer and all final exams will 
be held online. This is certainly a great 
start, but it is clearly not enough. 
Aside from the unassailable reality 
that many of the proposed rules 
(especially the self-imposed quarantine) 
are impossible to enforce, the crux 
of the matter is this plan’s failure to 
address the bigger picture. In order to 
not only contain this virus, but to keep 
our economy afloat, feed our people and 
provide proper social services, many 
still need to put themselves in harm’s 
way. These essential frontline workers 
bear the brunt of this pandemic to 
ensure the safety of others. If we truly 
cared about their well-being, we would 
do everything in our power to physically 
distance, stay home and avoid all public 
buildings and crowded spaces. Those 
with the ability to distance themselves 
have a responsibility to do so in order 
to reduce the risk to those without the 

same luxury. This same logic applies to 
returning to school in the fall. Whether 
it is public, private, elementary or 
college, those of us who do not have 
to go back should be leaving space for 
those who have no other choice but to 
return to school.
The basic rules and requirements in 
place will not necessarily stop the spread 
of the virus. The University’s leaders have 
set aside quarantined housing for sick 
students, implying they foresee a number 
of students falling ill due to their return 
to campus. What happens if just one 
student dies? Does school continue? Do 
they send everyone back home, exposing 
their families and communities? Would 
it have been worth it to put students 
back in the classroom? If the return 
to in-person classes results in one 
mistake, one accidental transmission, 
the sickness and possible death that 
follows will be the consequence of our 
lack of innovation. 
There is an opportunity for the 
University to show the country what the 
Leaders and the Best can do when faced 
with an unthinkable challenge. Just as 
car companies have switched gears to 
manufacture medical equipment, the 
University could switch gears to provide 
an education to their students that is 
worth the tuition — sans the risk of 
exposure to the virus. Adapting classes 
for virtual instruction, educating our 
students about the impacts and science 
of this pandemic, implementing new 
software and project creation tools and 
providing sanitary spaces for faculty to 
virtually lead labs and demonstrations 
from campus is just the tip of the 
iceberg. Beyond the coursework, the 
University could utilize the planned 
tuition increase to fund laptops and 
internet access for students who do 
not have proper resources at home, 
establish curbside pickup routines for 
University services such as dining halls, 
use dorms to exclusively house students 
that live in difficult home situations 
and provide ample advising resources 
for students to improve their access to 
the University’s myriad of resources. 
This can be accomplished while almost 
entirely limiting in-person interaction. 
While no solution is perfect, we have 
the responsibility and the power to inno-
vate, adapt and overcome this pandemic. 
Challenges of such magnitude will con-
tinue to cost lives, and the more we push 
the envelope to allow for a “normal” 
college experience, the farther we fall 
behind in our ability to lead others to a 
brighter, and healthier, future. 

W

hat felt like a distant real-
ity for the past six months 
is finally here. In just a few 
short weeks, students across the nation 
will be reckoning with school start-ups 
— whether that means cautiously moving 
into a new apartment on campus or log-
ging onto Canvas from your hometown. 
As we gear up for the long-anticipated fall 
semester, inboxes are filled with campus-
wide public health-advised guidelines for 
courses, clubs and sports, and I can’t help 
but feel a little nostalgic for a time before 
COVID-19 and masks. The optimist in me 
had hoped that summer would be the end 
of it, but now a corona-less future seems 
unimaginable — or at least until 2024. 
Working at a local grocery store this sum-
mer, I feel my current cynicism deepen 
with every customer that refuses to wear 
a mask during their 10-minute grocery 
runs despite Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s 
statewide orders — that, and seeing vid-
eos and Snapchat stories of “COVID-19 
petri dish” parties and gatherings. 
I’d like to think my peers and I will 
be more responsible and considerate 
on campus, but higher risk of infection 
on college grounds across the country 
has already been deemed inevitable 
by a New York Times survey prior to 
the new academic year. Unfortunately, 
this is not all that surprising given the 
night-life crowds that took over Ann 
Arbor bars after Whitmer’s rescinding 
of the Safer at Home Order in June and 
Theta Chi’s careless summer kickback. 
Our image as the Leaders and the Best 
was rightfully scrutinized then, and it is 
bound to face even heavier surveillance 
during this experimental semester. 
As university students, it’s high time 
our increasingly expensive schooling 
be put to productive use this semes-

ter. According to a New York Times 
article, we are impulsive, risk-taking 
college students that study together, 
live together, party together and sleep 
together. And they’re right. As thou-
sands of students are welcomed back, 
campuses will become what psycholo-
gists call a strong situation in which 
external environmental forces define 
the desirability of potential behaviors 
despite an individual’s personal tenden-
cies and personality. This is especially 
true in cultural systems like that of uni-
versities where the norm is the often 
anti-intellectual nature of college stu-
dent culture. The enduring coronavirus 
calls for a reevaluation of hookup cul-
ture and reckless school spirit, and we 
must be the ones at the forefront of this 
battle against amateur human tendency. 
While reopening campuses seems 
like a doomed endeavor from the begin-
ning, we should take this opportunity to 
redefine our college experience apart 
from tailgating and Thursday night 
excursions — whether that means 
spending more time on Zoom meetings 
and nights in, or looking deeper into the 
flaws of our own college culture. Amid 
a global pandemic that doesn’t seem 
to be going anywhere any time soon, 
it’s time for a cultural reset, if you will 
— one that encompasses a little more 
accountability for our actions. The only 
question is: Are we up for the challenge? 
For everyone’s sake, I sure hope so. 
This quarantine period has woken 
America up to the glaring systemic 
issues of highly politicized public health 
initiatives, structural racism within 
every established institution and the col-
lateral damage from U.S. Immigration 
and Customs Enforcement policies. It 
would be for naught if we did not bring 

those issues back to our own schooling 
as many have done with the newly resur-
faced review and reassessment petition 
for the University of Michigan’s Race 
and Ethnicity requirement as well as the 
student-led petition in response to ICE’s 
recent international student regulation. 
A return to normalcy is not necessar-
ily in order. Rather, heavier precautions 
and inquiry imposed by administration 
and the student body is vital to ensure 
that we do not succumb to the normal 
we once knew. We must keep demand-
ing more from our institution and 
from our peers as privileged pioneers 
of higher education. This fall will be 
extremely uncertain, but one thing is 
for sure: Public health must be a priority 
in the eyes of every individual on cam-
pus. In the best of scenarios, our collec-
tive efforts to reduce risk of infection in 
an environment that thrives on social 
interaction will still result in unforgiving 
blame for any campus-related cases. So 
don’t give our academic administration 
another reason to look down upon the 
fickle and instinctive college population. 
As future leaders, having experi-
enced this hardship will make us more 
perceptive to better problem solving 
and policy making. We will have expe-
rienced the frustration and courage to 
let disproportionately unheard voices 
be heard as we pursue a new normal. 
This semester will be trying for us all, 
but I remain — perhaps naively — opti-
mistic in the fact that we will come out 
of this as better change makers, six feet 
apart. There’s nothing I hate more than 
being disappointed, so wear a mask, 
wash your hands and don’t be a jerk.

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Power and responsibility in crisis

RYAN SCHILDCROUT | CONTRIBUTOR

Thursday, August 13, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
5
OPINION

Back to school, not to normal

EASHETA SHAH | COLUMNIST

Easheta Shah can be reached at 

shaheash@umich.edu.

Ryan Schildcrout is a fifth-year senior 

in the College of Engineering and School 

of Music, Theatre and Dance and can be 

reached at ryanseth@umich.edu. 

