The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Monday, August 31, 2020 — 3

In 
the 
main 
hallway 
of 

Markley Residence Hall is a 
selection of large blue move-in 
bins. Standing next to the bins is 
a portable whiteboard sign with 
a hand-written message: “Please 
wipe before & after use!” On the 
floor lies a tube of disinfectant 
wipes, empty. 

This 
week, 
thousands 
of 

students 
are 
moving 
into 

University of Michigan residence 
halls. 
Students 
still 
have 

roommates, highly contaminable 
areas like bathrooms are still 
cleaned twice a day and social 
distancing is difficult to regulate 
in the narrow hallways.

Even 
on 
paper, 
the 

University has taken a less 
aggressive approach than other 
universities. 
By 
opening 
at 

about 70 percent capacity while 
closing all shared spaces, the 
measures that the University is 
taking puts its residential plan in 
the Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention’s “more risk” 
category.

Bowdoin College has reduced 

its capacity down to 40% and is 
requiring residents to be tested 
every other day during move-in 
and twice per week throughout 
the semester. Harvard University 
has 
instituted 
a 
phased 

introduction to campus for its 
residents that requires students 
to have three negative tests. The 
University of California Berkeley 
has converted all of its rooms to 
single occupancy. Michigan State 
University has told students they 
shouldn’t return to campus. 

In practice, many of the 

measures that the University 
says it’s taking are not being 
enforced, leaving some students 
confused and concerned.

Amir 
Baghdadchi, 

senior 
associate 
director 

of 
the 
University 
Housing 

Administration, said spacing out 
time slots for students to move 
in is the most important change 
Housing is taking compared 
to previous years. Baghdadchi 
said time slots were assigned 
to ensure that roommates are 
not moving in at the same time 
to minimize contact between 
families. 

“Instead of moving about 

7,000 students in two and a half 
days, we’ll be moving thousands 
of students over seven days,” 
Baghdadchi said. “Then we used 

what we use every year: time 
slots. This actually allows us 
to really regulate the number 
of people that will be arriving 
up to the curb and going into a 
building at one time.”

The University’s new policy 

allows only one guest at a 
time to accompany a resident 
inside residence halls, which 
Baghdadchi 
said 
will 
limit 

congestion 
in 
spaces 
like 

elevators. 

“We’re really thinking about 

one family at a time, one student 
at a time, one helper at a time,” 
Baghdadchi said.

But The Daily — and freshmen 

moving in such as Business 
freshman Anupama Yetukuri 
— 
saw 
multiple 
parents, 

siblings and other relatives all 
accompany students. 

“We definitely saw lots of 

people who just had their whole 
families,” Yetukuri said.

LSA freshman Ashna Mehra 

said she moved into her residence 
hall room at the same time as her 
roommates and their families. 

Regarding the rule of only two 

people in an elevator at once, LSA 
freshmen Meghan Dodaballapur 
and Josie McCarthy said this 
isn’t being enforced either. 

Yetukuri said it seems to 

her that compliance with the 
University’s move-in policies is a 
matter of choice. 

“If you choose to do it, you’re 

doing it,” Yetukuri said. 

LSA freshman Laura Topf 

agreed: “There’s just no follow-
through.”

This includes the University’s 

mask requirement. The Daily 
saw students and guests in East 
Quad, South Quad, Markley and 
Oxford residence halls walking 
around hallways and sitting in 
common spaces maskless, even 
with Housing staff nearby.

The University’s testing plan, 

which 
has 
faced 
skepticism 

from public health experts for 
not being extensive enough, 
requires that all residents test 
negative 
before 
coming 
to 

campus. However, Topf said 
that requirement is also loosely 
enforced.

“We took tests, and they said 

to print it out and have it with us, 
but they never asked me for my 
test results,” Topf said.

Baghdadchi said students are 

encouraged to “stop by” other 
students’ rooms and “drop into 
the doorway.” However, he said 
that “socializing needs to be 

socially distant, really outside 
the room.” 

Baghdadchi 
suggested 

students meet in the common 
areas within the residence halls. 
However, the University has 
closed these common areas. 

Baghdadchi said students are 

encouraged to meet outdoors, 
which, as he noted, would put 
them outside the purview of 
Michigan Housing. According to 
Baghdadchi, as long as residents 
are socially distanced, they are 
encouraged to explore campus as 
they would any other year.

“We imagine a lot of students 

will be doing what students do 
every single year,” Baghdadchi 
said. “Move-in comes around 
— it’s at a ripe moment in the 
summer — and the first thing 
students do is they go out on 
campus and explore it, which 
is what they exactly should do. 
Going out and experiencing 
campus outdoors is a low-risk 
activity.”

The days surrounding move-

in, which students refer to as 
“Welcome Week,” are usually 
chock-full of round-the-clock 
parties and extravagant social 
events. While Welcome Week 
may be toned down this year, 
some 
off-campus 
parties 

continue. 

Residents are required to 

adhere to all Ann Arbor city and 
University 
guidelines, 
which 

includes a 25-person limit on 
outdoor gatherings. When asked 
what the University is doing to 
prevent residents from attending 
parties, Baghdadchi said it is 
up to students to adhere to the 
Housing contract. 

“Ultimately, students have to 

make choices,” Baghdadchi said. 
“When you choose to live with 
us, you’re choosing to follow 
the standards. And if you’re 
not interested in following the 
standards, then you’re also not 
interested in living in Michigan 
Housing.”

Baghdadchi 
said 
students 

understand 
that 
exercising 

caution is central to the success 
of the University’s in-residence 
semester.

“I think they fundamentally 

understand there is a connection 
between what they do outside 
the residence hall and whether 
we can have a residence hall,” he 
said.

But once a student is dropped 

off, the University has little 
control over residents’ behavior. 

For some residents, this is a 
cause for confusion and fear. For 
others, it’s an invitation to act 
freely. 

For example, LSA freshman 

Ryan Mulliken, who moved in on 
Tuesday, said he would be open 
to attending fraternity parties. 
Mulliken said he contracted 
COVID-19 
in 
March, 
and 

therefore “I wouldn’t say that 
I’m worried, because again, I’ve 
had it.” 

Mulliken acknowledged that 

his antibodies do not guarantee 
immunity. He said he would be 
careful because he’s worried 
about the fate of the semester but 
that he’s still hoping to go out.

Topf said it’s unclear what 

students are and are not allowed 
to do. 

“They never went over the 

rules,” Topf said. “There’s no one 
in the halls making sure people 
don’t go into other people’s 
rooms. There’s a big group of 
freshmen sitting in a circle close 
to each other with no masks on.”

Yetukuri said she is concerned 

about 
students 
socializing 

unsafely. She said enforcement 
from the University is ineffective 
in preventing her and her peers 
from partying.

“The only reason I wouldn’t go 

is because I don’t want (COVID-
19),” Yetukuri said. 

When 
Resident 
Advisors 

pushed administration to give 
them more testing in a town hall 
with the Housing and Student 
Life 
offices, 
Robert 
Ernst, 

director of University Health 
Service, said, “Having a test 
doesn’t prevent you from getting 
COVID.” Ernst’s comments on 
testing, as well as University 
President 
Mark 
Schlissel’s, 

have been questioned by several 
public health experts.

Topf said she had hoped 

she could count on University 
officials and staff, but her 
experience with move-in has 
shown her she can’t. 

“I wish I wouldn’t have to 

depend on other 17-year-olds 
to be safe and that I could trust 
teachers will help us and other 
adults, but it’s just not the case,” 
Topf said.

After 
speaking 
with 
The 

Daily 
Tuesday, 
Baghdadchi 

wrote in an email to The Daily 
Wednesday 
that 
Michigan 

Housing is “recalibrating some 
of the policies.”

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JOHN GRIEVE
Daily Staff Reporter

Precautions go unenforced as 
students move into residence halls

‘There’s just no follow-through’: Health protocols subject to lax oversight 
as new occupants fill dorms across University of Michigan campus

Most University of Michigan 

students have yet to move back to 
Ann Arbor, but some were already 
partying Sunday through Tuesday 
as the pandemic rages on. 

These parties do not bode well 

for Friday and Saturday night, the 
two busiest going-out nights on 
campus and when most students 
who plan on returning will have 
moved in. 

The 
Daily’s 
reporters 
saw 

multiple parties near campus and 
many maskless groups walking 
around dressed for a night out 
Sunday and Monday. With classes 
set to begin in less than a week, 
the issue of off-campus parties 
has turned students against one 
another, prompting heated debates 
on social media and in group chats 
of University students. 

Out of almost 1,800 incoming 

freshmen surveyed anonymously 
by The Daily mid-August, 31.7 
percent said they’d be very 
comfortable 
to 
somewhat 

comfortable going to a house party 
despite COVID-19.

Even if the vast majority of 

students refrained from partying, 
unsafe gatherings can account for 

a significant chunk of the student 
body. Out of the University’s 
roughly 30,000 undergraduates, 
even if only 1 percent chose to 
party, that would still total 300 
students. 

Viral Party Photograph
A photo of an outdoor party 

Sunday night with the banner 
“You can’t eat ASS with a mask 
on” sparked much conversation 
on social media. Many said in 
replies to the original tweet that 
they were disappointed but not 
surprised.

Information graduate student 

Daniella Raz captured the viral 
photograph while she was walking 
home. She said she saw the party at 
about 9:30 p.m. Sunday night.

She said the banner proves some 

students don’t plan on following 
public health guidelines.

“The big banner (makes) light 

of a pandemic that has killed so 
many Americans,” Raz said. “This 
behavior was inevitable after the 
University’s decision to bring 
students back to campus, and the 
administration should reconsider 
their course of action.”

Another banner in the photo 

referenced 
Phi 
Kappa 
Psi, 

prompting speculation that the 
party was fraternity-affiliated. 
University 
spokeswoman 
Kim 

Broekhuizen said Phi Kappa Psi 

was not involved in the gathering.

In an email to The Daily, 

Broekhuizen said the gathering 
“was of individuals who are 
believed to be members of the 
same household. Their socializing 
behavior would be in alignment 
with public health guidance as 
well as within the 25 person limit 
for outdoor gatherings.”

She 
wrote 
that 
Michigan 

Ambassadors 
have 
“provided 

education” to students gathered at 
the home. 

“While the content of the 

banners does not reflect positively 
on the residents, the university 
or our public-health efforts, it is 
speech that is protected by the 
first amendment,” Broekhuizen 
wrote. “The banner was removed 
immediately 
by 
the 
house 

occupants. The university is in 
the process of doing additional 
followup and education with the 
students involved.”

Broekhuizen 
wrote 
that 

the 
University 
“thoroughly 

condemns” 
those 
who 
are 

harassing and threatening the 
students at this party.

Rackham student Joe Meadows 

said the photo of a party happening 
on campus represents a lack of 
empathy overall.

“If 
people 
haven’t 
been 

personally affected by this, then 

they don’t seem to take it too 
seriously,” Meadows said. “And for 
me personally, as someone who’s 
lost a couple friends to this since 
March, that just smacks of apathy 
of other people’s experiences.”

Regulation 
of 
off-campus 

behavior

In its efforts to regulate student 

behavior, the University has rolled 
out a program in which teams of 
students, faculty, staff and police 
officers walk around campus daily 
from noon to midnight to remind 
students to adhere to public health 
guidelines and to break up unsafe 
gatherings. 

The 
program, 
known 
as 

Michigan 
Ambassadors, 
has 

drawn backlash for its perceived 
lack of enforcement mechanisms 
and for working with local 
police, 
though 
Broekhuizen 

and University President Mark 
Schlissel have said it is designed 
to 
reduce 
reliance 
on 
law 

enforcement.

The University also updated its 

Statement of Students Rights and 
Responsibilities, which Schlissel 
said could be used to give students 
a citation and a fine after multiple 
warnings.

CLAIRE HAO & JASMIN 

LEE

Daily News Editor & 

As students return to Ann Arbor, 
parties are held on off-campus

Nearly a third of freshman surveyed said they would be very comfortable 
to somewhat comfortable going to a house party, TMD survey says

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com
A group of girls dressed for a night out on Monday night. 

DOMINICK SOKOTOFF/DAILY

