2-News

I 

have 
real 
problems 

with my city and my 
university. It’s legal in 

Ann Arbor to gather outside 
in groups of 25 and inside in 
groups of 10. But it isn’t safe. 
The city also requires that we 
wear masks when in groups, 
but 
even 
that’s 
not 
safe 

unless we are six feet apart. 
And how easy is it to wear a 
mask when you’re having a 
drink and a conversation? 

My 
city 
— 
the 
city 
I 

came 
home 
to 
10 
years 

after I graduated from the 
University of Michigan — 
is not doing all it should to 
protect students. 

And 
our 
university? 

Well, I hate to admit it, but 
Michigan State University is 
behaving more responsibly 
on this one. They’ve opted to 
have all classes online, while 
our university is offering 
some in-person classes and 
students are flooding the 
campus. 

Full 
disclosure: 
I’m 
a 

senior citizen, which means 
this virus is more likely 
to kill me than it is to kill 
students. I live near campus 
with my husband and one of 
my sons. I have always loved 
living among students — it 
energizes me. Now, not so 
much. 

I grew up in New York and 

came to Michigan to go to the 
University. After graduating, 
I returned to the big city to 

do a doctorate at New York 
University. By the time I 
was finished, I was married 
to a Michigan guy, and we 
both missed Ann Arbor. We 
packed up and came home to 

our college town, and we’ve 
never regretted it. 

I love this city and this 

university, but I worry about 
the path we’re all on. Very 
few people get through this 
disease 
without 
suffering. 

If you’ve ever had the flu, 
imagine 
something 
much 

worse. And then there’s the 
possibility of dying, even for 
young people. 

Even 
though 
the 
virus 

may be more dangerous for 
old folks like me, it can do 
irreparable damage to you, 
sometimes in ways that can’t 
hurt me any more — the loss 
of fertility may be one of the 
long-term effects of suffering 
from this virus. Too little is 
known to be sure of that, but 
some of the consequences are 
so unknown they aren’t even 
being investigated yet.

So 
I’m 
asking 
you 
to 

consider 
being 
more 

responsible than the people 
making 
the 
rules 
around 

here. Wear masks whenever 
you’re out. Stand six feet away 
from others. Skip parties 
until there’s a vaccine. If you 
can opt to take your classes 
online, do that. 

This is a bummer. For all 

of us, but especially for you. I 
have wonderful memories of 
my college years, and social 
life was a major part of the 
college experience. I didn’t 
have 
to 
choose 
between 

connecting with friends and 
staying alive and healthy, and 
you shouldn’t have to either. 
But you do. And the choice 
should 
be 
easy 
enough, 

however painful. 

Stay safe. Stay well. And 

we’ll all meet again on the 
other side of this. 

B

eginning college is an 
exciting and stressful 
time for most students. 

The anticipation of a new 
town, new campus and new 
friends brings all kinds of 
feelings, a majority of which 
are happy ones. All too often 
this excitement is tainted by 
warnings of weight gain in 
the form of the “Freshman 
15.” Well-meaning older peers 
and family members warn 
you to “watch what you eat in 
the dining halls,” or outright 
suggest that you “don’t eat ‘x’ 
because you’ll gain weight,” 
as 
if 
such 
a 
biologically 

natural and necessary lifelong 
process is the worst thing 
that can happen to you. Well, 
I have news for you. Weight 
gain as a college student is 
natural, most times harmless 
and honestly, it should be the 
least of your concerns. The 
notion that weight gain stops 
at the age of 18 and that your 
teenaged high-school body 
is to be maintained for life 
needs to go.

Let’s breakdown the fear 

and anxiety that comes along 
with the dreaded “Freshman 
15” for what it really is — 
negative and anxious feelings 
toward weight gain as a result 
of a fatphobic society that has 
ingrained a mantra of “thin 
equals healthy and attractive” 
while 
being 
in 
a 
larger 

body is seen as unhealthy, 
undesirable 
and 
carries 

underlying 
assumptions 

about the person, namely that 
they are lazy. Yet, the fears 
surrounding this old myth are 
uncalled for.

Not only is the saying 

an exaggeration, with the 
average weight gain being 
2.5-3.5 pounds during the 
first year of college, it is also 
inaccurate to assume weight 
gain 
automatically 
equals 

unhealthy, 
overweight 
or 

“fat.” Even if one wanted to go 
by the BMI standard — which 
is misleading for its own 
reasons — a 2.5-pound weight 
gain, 
in 
the 
approximate 

average range, barely nudges 
one’s BMI. So, if you’re in the 
“healthy” category, odds are 
you’re going to remain right 
there. Even if one were to gain 
the “15 pounds” as the saying 
goes, it’s also entirely possible 
and common to remain within 
the “healthy” category. For 
example, a 19-year-old female 
with a BMI of 21 can gain 
15 pounds and end up at a 
BMI of 23.5 which is still a 
“healthy” BMI, dependent on 
the height. However, I’d like 
to go beyond BMI since, as I 
said before, there are many 
reasons as to why it’s not an 
accurate measure of health. 

For one, the categories of 

“overweight” 
and 
“obese” 

are so ambiguous and lacking 
in evidence. In fact, in 1998, 
the categories changed, and 
as a result, millions became 
“overweight” 
or 
“obese” 

overnight 
— 
something 

the diet industry has made 
billions off of. Some may be 
shocked to learn that more 
studies 
are 
showing 
that 

being “overweight” can be 
perfectly healthy. A meta-
analysis of a bunch of studies 
found that individuals who 

are 
underweight 
have 
a 

greater risk of death than 
individuals falling under the 
“obese” category. 

Yet, 
no 
one 
criticizes 

very thin-bodied people the 
same way they do larger-
bodied folks. It’s actually 
the opposite — an immense 
glorification of very thin-
bodied people that more often 
than not is praise toward an 
eating disorder or disordered 
eating behaviors. So, this 
supposedly 
“well-intended” 

advice given to young adults 
under the guise of “health” 
does 
nothing 
to 
support 

health since health is not a 
number. 

The Health at Every Size 

(HAES) 
movement, 
which 

encompasses the principles of 
Intuitive Eating, is growing 
and so is the research backing 
it. 
If 
anything, 
warnings 

against 
the 
“Freshman 

15” are way more hurtful 
than helpful and send diet 
culture messages that weight 
gain is inherently bad and 
unattractive — that we should 
actively be trying to suppress 
our body weight or pursue 
weight loss. No wonder eating 
disorders 
and 
disordered 

eating behaviors are rampant 
on campuses. 

What’s 
most 
frustrating 

about 
the 
“Freshman 
15” 

message is the assumption 
that the weight you are at on 
the day of your high school 
graduation is somehow the 
weight you must be at during 
college, 
and 
pretty 
much 

the rest of your life. This is 
absolutely 
absurd. 
Young 

adults are actively growing 
and 
developing 
well 
into 

their mid-20s, so ill-advised 
measures projected on them 
to suppress their body weight 
do much more harm and zero 
good.

Furthermore, 
more 

research in support of set 
point 
theory 
has 
come 

forward, 
supporting 
the 

theory’s belief that every 
individual 
has 
a 
pre-

disposed set weight range in 
which their body functions 
optimally, and the body will 
actively fight to maintain 
this range. This is not to say 
that everyone’s setpoints will 
abide by the BMI standards. 
It would be foolish to think 
that every unique individual 
should 
be 
in 
a 
certain 

BMI range because that’s 
what’s healthiest for them. 
Who are we, as a society, 

to 
determine 
that? 
Some 

people’s 
setpoint 
ranges 

are 
within 
the 
“healthy” 

category, and plenty of others 
are within the “underweight” 
or “overweight” categories. 
In terms of those in the 
“underweight” 
group 

specifically, the difference 
here 
is 
that 
one 
whose 

natural set weight range is 
in this category maintains 
their weight without effort, 
meaning 
without 
dietary 

restriction and/or the abuse of 
exercise to keep that weight. 
Even if they purposefully 
pushed themselves to overeat 
for a period of time, it would 
be just as unsustainable as is 
undereating for a period of 
time (cough, cough, diet).

So, what to do? Surely, 

there must be some nutrition 
advice people must abide by, 
and surely, we must exercise. 
Well, yes and no. The forceful 
mindset of this statement is all 
wrong. What almost everyone 
gets wrong about the HAES 
movement is that it promotes 
obesity, and not only permits 
but encourages people to eat 
“junk” foods 24/7 and never 
exercise again. That couldn’t 
be farther from the truth. 
The 
movement 
champions 

the idea that one can pursue 
health 
at 
any 
weight 
by 

listening to their body and 
eating intuitively. Our bodies 
crave balance by nature, so 
while some may find they 
crave the calorically dense 
foods 
deemed 
“unhealthy” 

by society on some days, 
accepting that craving and 
meeting it is the best thing 
to 
do, 
and 
often 
results 

in the body craving more 
traditionally nutritious foods 
at other times. Full body trust 
is crucial. 

HAES 
also 
encourages 

people to partake in physical 
movement that they enjoy 
and that feels good. By taking 
a step away from mainstream 
fitness (and diet) culture, 
which 
pushes 
“working 

out” on people as something 
they have to do on the daily, 
movement 
becomes 
more 

appealing and enjoyable. It’s 
no longer confined to a gym or 
high-pressure 
environment. 

Instead, it includes walks or 
hikes with friends or playing 
tennis with a partner. All 
in all, if health is one’s true 
concern, then focusing on a 
number on a scale is a micro 
piece of the puzzle and largely 
irrelevant. Most times, it leads 
to poorer health as a result 
of 
unsustainable 
dieting 

measures. The best thing to 
target is behaviors, and that’s 
exactly what HAES supports 
by encouraging people to tune 
into their individual body’s 
needs and explore movement, 
with the goal to adopt healthy 
movement as an enjoyable, 
recurring practice. 

The healthiest thing for 

us college students, then, 
is to skip over the years of 
pointless 
and 
unhealthy 

dieting entirely and start 
practicing the principles of 
HAES and Intuitive Eating 
now.

8 — Wednesday, September 2, 2020
Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

W

ith 
the 
end 
of 

summer 
drawing 

near, 
many 

students, faculty and staff 
fearfully 
anticipate 
the 

repercussions of University 
President 
Mark 
Schlissel’s 

vague and impractical plan 
for a public health-informed 
fall semester. Beside basic 
measures such as increasing 
social 
distancing 
in 

classrooms, 
requiring 
face 

masks on all campus grounds 
and offering a great number of 
online courses, few concrete 
steps have been taken to 
repress a COVID-19 outbreak 
on any of the three University 
of 
Michigan 
campuses. 

Schlissel himself stated that 
much of the reopening plan 
is 
dependent 
on 
students 

following 
public 
health 

guidelines, which — as we’ve 
seen as students begin to 
move back to Ann Arbor — is 
unlikely to happen. Despite the 
University of North Carolina 
at Chapel Hill moving classes 
online after one week and 
Central Michigan University 
increasing their case numbers 
tenfold within the first week 
of classes, both due to student 
behavior, Schlissel somehow 
still 
believes 
that 
our 

campuses will have a different 
result. 

It 
could 
be 
considered 

flattering that Schlissel is 
outwardly shows such strong 
faith in the student body. 
However, this outlook assumes 
that 
the 
immunologist 

running one of the world’s 
best public universities is 
naive and ignorant enough 
to 
believe 
his 
students, 

who 
have 
been 
partying 

throughout the summer, are 
suddenly going to stop. In his 
most recent announcement to 
the University of Michigan 
community, he implied that 
students who don’t follow 
public health guidelines will 
be to blame if the University 
is forced to revert to online-
only 
classes. 
Placing 
the 

responsibility on the students to 
follow public health guidelines 
upon 
returning 
to 
campus 

is an attempt to scapegoat 
the student body so that the 
administration cannot be held 
accountable 
for 
triggering 

the inevitable viral outbreak. 
While any student who hosts 
or attends a party with more 
than 25 people is culpable for 
whatever consequences that 
gathering has on their campus 
or surrounding communities, 
the University administration 
is still at fault for enabling 
them.

If 
the 
University 
had 

any true intent to keep our 
campuses open throughout 
the upcoming school year, 
there would be explicitly 
stated and properly severe 
consequences 
for 
any 

student found to be violating 
public 
health 
guidelines. 

There would be a plan for 
rigorous 
asymptomatic 

testing of the entire campus 
throughout 
the 
semester. 

Every single course would 
have the option to be taken 
online. All students living in 
dorms would live in single 
rooms and be provided with 
adequate personal protective 
equipment. Bathrooms would 
have 
plexiglass 
between 

sinks. Any and all testing 
and 
COVID-19 
related 

treatment for students, staff 
and faculty living on any 
of the three U-M campuses 
would be paid for by the 
University. These demands 
are included in a petition 
created by #NotMICampus, 

a 
coalition 
of 
students 

from 
various 
universities 

in the state of Michigan 
demanding 
changes 
in 

problematic reopening plans 
arising from their schools. 
The petition can be found 
here, and I strongly urge 
anybody 
concerned 
about 

the 
University’s 
current 

reopening plan to sign it. 

Still, if the administration 

truly cared about the well-
being of its students, staff 
and faculty as well as the 
communities that host our 
campuses, 
classes 
would 

have already been moved 
online 
for 
the 
upcoming 

semesters. 
In 
fact, 
there 

would not have been a plan 
for in-person classes in the 
first place. The university 
with a leading School of 
Public Health would have 
lived up to its “Leaders and 

the Best” slogan by leading 
the transition into an entirely 
online education throughout 
the rest of this pandemic. 
There would not have been a 
1.9 percent tuition increase 
but rather a reduction in 
tuition for all three campuses 
to compensate for the lack of 
university 
facilities 
being 

used throughout the school 
year. 
The 
administration 

would have dipped into its 
massive endowment fund in 
order to provide financial 
support to its students, staff 
and faculty throughout the 
recession triggered by the 
COVID-19 pandemic. Each 
of the demands arising from 
the 
University’s 
ResStaff, 

the residential advisors and 
employees 
of 
University 

Housing, would be met and 
respected. 
Students, 
who 

were forced to pay a $50 
COVID-19 fee for a safety kit 
whether they were returning 
to campus or not, would not 
be required to pick up said kit 
in person during limited time 
windows. The University’s 
COVID-19 Emergency Fund, 
funded by the Coronavirus 
Aid 
Relief 
and 
Economic 

Security 
Act, 
would 
be 

more widely advertised and 
accessible. 

At this point, it’s nearly 

impossible to argue that the 
University is still moving 
forward 
with 
its 
current 

reopening 
plan 
with 
the 

health 
and 
safety 
of 
its 

students, staff and faculty 
in mind. Schlissel and his 
administration 
are 
likely 

aware of how problematic 
their current plan is but are 
still moving forward with 
it — even their own COVID-
19 
Ethics 
and 
Privacy 

Committee explicitly stated 
its disapproval in a statement 
released on July 31. In order 
to 
take 
action, 
we 
must 

sign 
the 
#NotMICampus 

petition, sign and share this 
petition that demands the 
cancellation 
of 
in-person 

classes 
and 
email 
the 

President’s Office (presoff@
umich.edu) explaining our 
disdain 
for 
the 
current 

plans. 
Additionally, 
those 

who are willing and able 
to 
continue 
protesting 

must 
do 
so. 
If 
enough 

people 
put 
this 
pressure 

on the administration, the 
University 
may 
just 
do 

something about it.

Until then, stay safe Ann 

Arbor.

U-M’s reopening plan promises nothing but failure

ELAYNA SWIFT | COLUMNIST

Elayna Swift can be reached at 

elaynads@umich.edu.

If enough 

people put this 
pressure on the 
administration, 
the University 

may just do 
something 

about it.

An open letter to U-M students from a 1966 graduate

DAVI NAPOLEON | OP-ED

I’m asking you 

to consider 
being more 
responsible 

than the people 

making the 
rules around 

here.

Davi Napoleon is a class of 

1966 alum and can be reached at 

davinapo@att.net. 

Nyla Booras can be reached at 

nbooras@umich.edu.

This supposedly 
well-intended 
advice given to 
young students 
under the guise 

of “health” 

does nothing to 
support health. 

So, you’re worried about the “Freshman 15”

NYLA BOORAS | COLUMNIST

Design courtesy of Lauren Kuzee