7-Opinion

Opinion
Wednesday, September 2, 2020 — 9
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

O

ver the next couple 
of weeks, universities 
across 
the 
United 

States 
will 
welcome 
back 

faculty, staff and students 
in the midst of the recent 
and 
sustained 
national 

surge in COVID-19 cases. 
The 
University 
of 
North 

Carolina, University of Notre 
Dame, North Carolina State 
University 
and 
University 

of Alabama showed us the 
dangers of bringing students 
back in this environment. 
Over 100 students have tested 
positive for COVID-19 within 
the first week of classes at all 
four universities. Like Notre 
Dame and NC State, UNC 
responded to the growing 
public-health crisis by going 
fully remote for this semester. 
Faculty, staff and students 
had 
made 
this 
demand 

for 
months, 
vociferously 

opposing UNC’s reopening 
plan and condemning the 
administration’s 
initial 

responses to early COVID-19 
outbreaks on campus.

Here in Ann Arbor, the 

University 
of 
Michigan 

continues 
to 
plan 
for 

in-person, hybrid and remote 
courses. University Housing 
aims to fill residences at about 
75 percent capacity while 
requiring only one COVID-
19 test before move-in, as 
well as an opt-in surveillance 
testing scheme for residents. 
In a town hall, University 
President Mark Schlissel told 
the community, “I wish you 
could see the scientific basis 
of our decisions” about the 
reopening plans. His Ethics 
and 
Privacy 
Committee 

Report said the University 
“has a substantial obligation 

to help students, students’ 
families, faculty, and staff 
be aware of (i) the actual, 
evolving health risks … and 
(iii) our actual and projected 
levels of success, as best we 
can gauge them.” 

The Graduate Employees’ 

Organization, 
Lecturers’ 

Employee 
Organization, 

tenure track faculty and staff 
have all requested access to 
the 
modeling 
and 
reports 

that informed the Fall plans. 
Yet, 
U-M 
administrators 

still refuse to release them. 
The University has chosen 
not to enter any meaningful 
dialogue with its workers 
and students by excluding 
them 
from 
the 
decision-

making process and hiding 
information from them about 
the risks we are walking into 
in a few weeks. 

Since May, GEO has been 

asking 
to 
be 
included 
in 

decisions, starting with an 
open letter signed by over 
1,800 members of the U-M 
community. For over four 
months, U-M failed to address 
any 
of 
the 
demands 
and 

actually withheld information 
on reopening from the entire 
community until late June. 
In response, faculty members 
petitioned for the ability to 
opt-out of in-person teaching 
without penalties. At the time 
of publication, they gained 612 
signatures. Shortly thereafter, 
staff circulated a petition, 
gaining 
261 
signatures, 

requesting that “all staff … be 
given equal opportunity and 
full autonomy to determine 
whether 
they 
return 
to 

campus or continue to work 
remotely.” 
The 
University 

has not publicly responded. 

Despite 
the 
calls 
for 

transparency, inclusion and 
choice in the reopening plans, 
the University continues to 
ignore its entire community. 

This blatant disregard for 

public health and people’s 
lives has led all spheres of 
the U-M community to come 
together in opposition to the 
University’s reopening plan. 
Our calls for remote teaching, 
increased 
testing 
capacity 

and 
overall 

transparency 
are designed to 
ensure the safety 
of 
the 
entire 

U-M community, 
including 
the 

year-round 
residents of Ann 
Arbor, 
Flint 

and 
Dearborn. 

Instead, 
the 

University’s 
poor 
leadership 

has resulted in 
departments 
— 

like the Stamps 
School of Art & 
Design — forcing 
new 
students 
to 
commit 

to 
being 
in-person, 
and 

assigning mostly lecturers, 
several of them new to the 
school, to teach those classes 
regardless of the instructors’ 
preferences. 
Lecturers 
are 

both being put at high risk 
for contracting COVID-19 and 
are being laid off in alarming 
frequency — 41 percent of 
lecturers on the University 
of 
Michigan-Flint 
campus 

were laid off this summer. 
The University has made the 
conscious decision to force 
in-person classes down the 
throats of the communities 

it serves in a haphazard and 
secretive manner.

In 
addition, 
University 

Housing forced all residents 
to sign an amendment that 
gives 
the 
University 
the 

authority to evict positive 
COVID-19 
residents 
and 

protects the University from 
any liability at the same time. 
If that weren’t enough, the 
University’s Board of Regents 

approved a 1.9 
percent tuition 
increase 
at 

Ann 
Arbor 

and 
Dearborn 

campuses 
and 
a 
3.9 

percent tuition 
increase 
for 

Flint 
campus, 

as well as a $50 
COVID-19 
fee 

for all enrolled 
students. 

The 
reality 

remains 
that 

universities 
knew 
about 

COVID-
19 
for 
over 

five 
months 

before they released their 
reopening 
plans. 
There 

was time to engage with 
GEO, 
LEO, 
faculty, 
staff, 

students 
and 
parents 
in 

a 
transparent 
manner. 

In 
particular, 
President 

Schlissel 
called 
testing 

the entire U-M community 
“science fiction,” which he 
justified by reiterating an old, 

homophobic and inaccurate 

claim about HIV testing — 
we 
shouldn’t 
test 
people 

because “testing can give you 
a false sense of security. That 
happened in the HIV epidemic 
when people got a negative 

test 
and 
presented 
it 
to 

their sex partner and spread 
(the) 
disease 
nonetheless.” 

Contrary to this statement, 
regular 
and 
asymptomatic 

testing is an essential part of 
HIV public health.

COVID-19 remains fairly 

controlled 
in 
Michigan 

compared 
to 
other 
parts 

of 
the 
country. 
But 
the 

University’s reopening plan 
could quickly undo that, as 
the Ann Arbor Public School 
Board 
noted 
when 
they 

decided to go fully online 
because of the University’s 
reckless reopening plan. Not 
only is the reopening plan 
unsafe and unjust, but it is 
dangerous, potentially deadly 
and puts all residents of Ann 
Arbor, Dearborn and Flint 
at risk. This is yet another 
strain on the not always rosy 
relationship between the U-M 
community and the permanent 
residents of Ann Arbor: City 
Councilmember Julie Grand 
noted the increased tension 
the 
University’s 
decisions 

have 
created 
within 
this 

relationship, stating, “I don’t 
like that this (reopening plan) 
pits students against people 
living in the community.”

At 
this 
point 
in 
the 

pandemic, 
the 
University 

knows that COVID-19 will 
kill faculty, staff, students 
and 
their 
families 
and 

neighbors. 
If 
someone 

survives the disease, there 
remains about a 33 percent 
chance of “prolonged illness 
even 
among 
persons 
with 

milder 
outpatient 
illness, 

including young adults.” All 
of this led to Gov. Gretchen 
Whitmer calling for all public 
universities 
to 
not 
bring 

their students back in the 
fall due to the pandemic and 
likelihood 
of 
in-residence 

semesters 
spreading 
the 

virus throughout the state. 
The University of Michigan’s 
plans 
for 
the 
fall 
term 

contradict 
the 
governor’s 

advice, as well as that of 
federal 
and 
state 
public 

health experts.

The University’s reopening 

plan 
is 
eerily 
similar 
to 

UNC’s plan — which has been 
referred to as a “clusterfuck” 
due 
to 
the 
explosion 
of 

positive 
COVID-19 
cases 

across the university. How 
much 
longer 
before 
the 

University, 
in 
particular 

President Schlissel, admits 
that we cannot safely house 
or 
teach 
in-person 
this 

semester? 
Will 
we 
have 

to 
wait 
for 
hundreds 
of 

positive 
COVID-19 
cases 

on campus within the first 
week 
of 
classes, 
as 
the 

UNC, Notre Dame, NC State 
and UA communities have 
experienced? Or will the plan 
be to push forward to “make it 
through the semester,” until 
someone in our community 
dies? And if that were to 
happen, where the loss of life 
acts as the tipping point for 
the University — is the price 
of an in-residence experience 
worth the lives of service and 
custodial workers and other 
campus staff?

The authors are from the 

Graduate Employees’ Organization 

COVID-19 Caucus and the Lecturers’ 

Employee Organization and can be 

reached at covidchair@geo3550.org 

and communications@leounion.org, 

respectively. 

GEO AND LEO MEMBERS | OP-ED

U-M’s reopening plan — a Wolverine culture of carnage

It is dangerous, 

potentially 

deadly and puts 

all residents 
of Ann Arbor, 
Dearborn and 
Flint at risk. 

JOIN EDITBOARD

Interested in public discourse? Want to have a hand in 

shaping The Michigan Daily’s editorials?

The Michigan Daily’s Editorial Board meets weekly on 

Mondays from 7:15 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. All Editboard meetings 
this semester are virtual and open to U-M students. Email 
opinion@michigandaily.com to receive the meeting link.

F

or my family, United 
States road trips were 
always 
a 
summer 

staple. Each year brought new 
adventures and experiences 
as we traversed the country. 
We visited small towns and 
big cities. We drove through 
Trump 
country 
and 
saw 

places where Democratic lawn 
signs dot the landscape. From 
Alaska to Florida, Hawaii to 
Maine, I have visited all 50 
states and seen not only the 
differences in our nation but 
also the similarities, such as 
our use of the post office. 

Anywhere you go in this 

country, you will notice the 
post office. From the blue 
mailboxes 
along 
the 
road 

to the distinct white, cubed 
postal trucks to the hundreds 
of 
thousands 
of 
dedicated 

postal carriers working rain or 
shine to deliver for us, the post 
office is universal. 

Over the past few months, 

we have seen a coordinated 
attack on the post office by 
the 
Trump 
administration. 

The head of the post office, 
Postmaster 
General 
Louis 

DeJoy, who was appointed by 
President Donald Trump, has 
been trying to gut the post 
office. He has directed a major 
overhaul of the post office, 
including slashing overtime, 
reducing business hours at 
certain locations and removing 
mail sorting machines. 

These changes have resulted 

in a major slowdown in the 
delivery 
of 
mail, 
a 
major 

concern given that millions 
of voters are expected to 
vote by mail in the November 
election. This slowdown of 
the post office is part of a 

concerted effort by Trump 
to disenfranchise voters and 
prevent Democrats from voting. 
Democrats 
are 
statistically 

more likely to vote by mail, 
so it makes sense that Trump 
does not want these people 
to vote. Recently, the postal 
service confirmed these fears 
by informing 46 states that 
they won’t have the capacity to 
deliver ballots on time.

Since these letters were 

sent, there has been a major 
outcry about the impact that 
these changes will have on 
the election. Twenty-one state 
attorney generals, including 
the Michigan Attorney General 
Dana Nessel, threatened to 
sue over the changes. Due to 
this backlash, the postmaster 
general reversed the plan until 
after the election. 

While 
this 
is 
a 
great 

development, we cannot let 
it distract us from the overall 
attack on the post office by 
Republicans. 
For 
decades, 

Republicans have attempted 
to dismantle and privatize 
the post office — a downright 
terrible idea. The post office 
employs more than 600,000 
Americans 
who 
serve 
the 

entire 
country. 
For 
many 

rural 
communities, 
private 

companies 
such 
as 
FedEx 

and UPS do not serve them. 
The U.S. Postal Service is 
so important for delivering 
medication and keeping people 
connected, especially during 
the pandemic. 

There are many things we 

can do to help protect the post 
office. Buying stamps and 
other items from the post office 
can help to fund them. You can 
also call your legislators to ask 

them to support the post office 
and continue to properly fund 
this critical organization. 

There is also a lot that 

Michiganders can do to help 
guarantee that we can safely 
vote and ensure that our votes 
are counted. Michigan is one 
of the states that will likely see 
record-breaking numbers of 
voters casting absentee ballots. 
Since the passage of Proposal 
3 in 2018, any Michigan voters 
can vote absentee without an 

excuse. In the August primary 
this year, 1.6 million voters cast 
an absentee ballot — more than 
any other in Michigan history. 
The 2020 election is expected 
to far surpass this, leading 
to major concerns about the 
capacity of the post office. In 
the August primary, over 6,000 
ballots were rejected because 
they 
were 
received 
after 

Election Day. If you want to 
avoid any issues with the post 
office, there are a few options 

that you can take to ensure 
that your vote is counted if you 
want to vote absentee. 

You should request your 

absentee ballot sooner rather 
than later. Instead of mailing 
back your ballot, you can 
deliver directly to your clerk’s 
office or leave it in an absentee 
ballot dropbox. There is a 
plan to have a dropbox put on 
the University of Michigan’s 
Central and North Campuses, 
making it easier for students 

to 
deliver 
their 
absentee 

ballots. 

As we look to November 

and beyond, we must remain 
committed to protecting our 
postal service in order to 
protect not only our elections 
but one of the most important 
governmental organizations 
that always delivers for all 
of us. 

ISABELLE SCHINDLER | COLUMNIST

Protect the post office

Isabelle Schindler can be reached 

at ischind@umich.edu.

SUBMIT TO SURVIVORS SPEAK

The Opinion section has created a space in The 
Michigan Daily for first-person accounts of sexual 

assault and its corresponding personal, academic and 

legal implications. 

Submission information can be found at: 
https://tinyurl.com/survivorsspeak2020.

Design courtesy of Lizzy Rueppel