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

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