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.” The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by students at the University OF Michigan. 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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