Cities and local leaders
across the country have faced
economic and social turmoil
throughout
the
COVID-19
pandemic.
On Wednesday morning,
the
Taubman
College
of
Architecture
and
Urban
Planning welcomed mayors
Jacob Frey of Minneapolis,
Lori Lightfoot of Chicago,
Libby
Schaaf
of
Oakland,
Calif. and Michael Tubbs of
Stockton, Calif., to a panel
titled “America’s Mayors on
Crisis and Change.”
University
President
Mark Schlissel opened the
event by describing cities as
“laboratories for democracy.”
He
thanked
the
Poverty
Solutions
Initiative
and
Taubman for collaborating on
hosting the event.
Taubman Dean Jonathan
Massey
introduced
the
panel’s members. He noted
that Lightfoot is the first
Black woman and first openly
gay mayor of Chicago, while
Tubbs
is
Stockton’s
first
Black mayor and the youngest
mayor of any city with more
than 100,000 residents.
Massey asked Tubbs and
Schaaf about their Universal
Basic
Income
initiatives,
which
would
provide
an
“unconditional
periodic
payment”
to
their
cities’
poorest residents. Tubbs said
the pandemic reaffirmed his
plans to provide a UBI, adding
that poverty is the result of
policymakers’ decisions.
According
to
Schaaf
a
UBI
would
encourage
socioeconomic mobility.
“People
spend
this
unconditional cash on basic
needs,” Schaaf said. “In fact,
sometimes people take this
little extra pillow so that they
can quit their third job and
look to upgrade their skills.”
Massey’s
next
question
focused on how mayors can
simultaneously
appease
constituents protesting police
brutality while maintaining a
good relationship with their
police forces. Frey, whose
city was at the center of this
issue this summer after police
officers killed George Floyd
in Minneapolis, said mayors
have to uphold freedom of
speech.
“It is incumbent on mayors
to be ardent defenders of our
First Amendment,” Frey said.
Frey
then
denounced
property
destruction
and
looting that took place in
the wake of Floyd’s murder.
He was met with pushback
in
the
comments
section,
where some people demanded
he acknowledge that most
protests were peaceful.
One of the people tied to the
looting was later connected
to a white supremacist group
and “specifically sought to
inflame
racial
tensions,”
according to police.
Massey
asked
about
strategies to dismantle white
supremacy. Frey pointed to
redlining in Minneapolis.
“We literally have maps
at city hall dating back 80 to
a hundred years that define
North Minneapolis as a slum
for Blacks and Jews,” Frey
said.
Frey continued, advocating
for
homeownership
as
a
method
to
generate
intergenerational wealth.
Other cities have pursued
different avenues of economic
revitalization.
In East Oakland, Calif.,
Schaaf
said
community
members
proposed
the
creation of an aquaponics
farm
in
an
abandoned
greenhouse and a bike-share
program where bikes could
serve as art to be decorated.
Schaaf said she was excited
the project had recently won
a
$28-million
grant
from
the Transformative Climate
Communities
program
to
move forward.
Schaaf noted how her city
implements
a
community-
oriented design process for
some
of
its
construction
projects.
“This year for the first
time we’re actually inviting
communities
to
propose
capital
improvement
projects,” Schaaf said.
The panel took questions
from
the
live
comments
section.
Rackham
student
Nana Andoh asked if any of
the mayors enacted policies
during the pandemic that they
hope to keep permanently.
Lightfoot, who started a
Racial Equity Rapid Response
Team at the beginning of the
pandemic, said she hoped
some of those programs would
stay. Established in April of
2020, the team is meant to
“address the disproportionate
impact of the coronavirus
pandemic
on
African-
American communities.”
“I don’t want to build
temporary scaffolding around
anything,” Lightfoot said.
Public
Policy
graduate
student Kyle Slugg asked how
the mayors are making sense
of the current crisis. Tubbs
said a large part of his job is
“reckoning with whether the
status quo is truly untenable.”
Massey closed the panel
by asking what leadership
principle each would bring
if they ran for president of
the United States, to which
Lightfoot answered, “never,
ever, ever.”
Daily
News
Contributor
Ben Vassar can be reached at
benvasmich.edu.
As part of her requirements
to
graduate
from
the
University
of
Michigan,
Nursing
junior
Kaitlyn
McDonald goes to Michigan
Medicine
like
she
would
any other school year. But
this year, her clinicals — the
component
of
the
School
of
Nursing
curriculum spent
in the field —
are taking place
against
the
backdrop of an
ongoing
global
pandemic.
“I
never
thought
that
something
like
this
would
happen,”
McDonald
said.
“But I’m really
proud
to
do
this
and
I’m
really
proud
to
be
learning
this
profession
to
be
able
to
help
people,
especially during
times like this.”
COVID-19
has
touched
nearly all facets
of
American
life
since
its
onset in March.
University
leadership
announced a “public-health
informed”
hybrid
fall
semester, which began at
the start of the month, with
nearly 80% of coursework
delivered remotely.
The Nursing School has, in
turn, adapted its curriculum
to
match
the
moment.
Students reported many of
their lectures now take place
online, as do the post-clinical
reflection meetings that offer
a chance to reflect on their
experiences in the field.
However,
students
are
completing
in-person
clinicals as they would any
other semester, but with some
changes to protocol. Students
wear masks on their shifts —
some of which can last up to
16 hours — and they are not
required to treat patients
who have tested positive for
COVID-19.
During a clinical, students
will
work
with
staff
on
day-to-day tasks to better
understand the specific area
of medicine they study and
how nurses fit in. Nursing
students
have
multiple
clinical experiences before
graduating, with placements
ranging
from
emergency
rooms
to
assisted
living
facilities for senior citizens.
Winter semester clinicals
were
canceled
in
March
because
unprecedented
circumstances
arose
that
were outside the school’s
control, according to Nursing
Dean
Patricia
Hurn.
She
said the school and clinical
partners now have a better
understanding
of
the
risks
associated
with
the
coronavirus, allowing them
to provide in-person clinicals.
Students in joining the
front lines are also gaining
necessary
clinical
hours
to
become
state-certified
nurses. There is no option for
students to complete clinicals
virtually, Hurn said, but the
Nursing School will work
with students who need to
step away from any part of
their studies.
And students are seeing
what it’s like to be in a
hospital when the unexpected
happens, Hurn said.
“It’s one thing as a student
to think about how difficult
things could be if there were
a pandemic, if there were a
major disaster,” Hurn said.
“It’s another thing to be
working in the reality where
that’s the case.”
But
there
is
still
risk
associated
with
going
to
clinicals,
McDonald
said.
Nurses might interact with
patients who have gotten
inaccurate
COVID-19
test
results,
for
example.
McDonald, who worked at
Michigan Medicine over the
summer as a patient care
technician, also said patients
could test positive after she
already worked with them
and she would not know if she
had been exposed.
Some
seniors
work
in
departments like emergency
rooms where they may not
know if a patient has the virus
upon first interaction. Other
Nursing students will also be
assisting in contact tracing
efforts this semester.
Nursing students typically
begin
clinicals
during
their sophomore year. The
number of hours spent on
these
rotations
largely
depends on what year they
are in the program and their
scheduling. Some seniors in
the program have tried to
schedule additional hours
at the beginning of the
semester to ensure they
can still meet graduation
and
certification
requirements if school
moves online, Nursing
senior Reagan Cloutier
said.
“Most of us are going
to graduate, obviously,
with this pandemic still
happening,”
Cloutier,
who is also president
of the Student Nurses
Association, said. “It’s
good for us to experience
what it’s like right now,
as a student. That way,
once we get out into the
real world, we’re going
to know what to expect
and how to operate under
these circumstances.”
Nursing
students
have felt a sense of pride
and usefulness in being
able to provide medical
care as the pandemic
rages
on.
McDonald
said
she felt helpless in March
when their rotations were
canceled, wishing she could
do something to help. But
in being back, they are also
learning a lesson about their
future profession: nurses have
to expect the unexpected in
medicine.
When they began their
clinicals
again
this
fall,
students said they felt excited
to
receive
the
hands-on
training.
Regardless of the changes
brought on by the pandemic,
students
say
much
of
it
feels the same. They still
get to work with medical
professionals
and
interact
with patients. Despite the
risks, these students agree
that they are where they are
meant to be.
“It’s inspired me,” Nursing
junior Maureen Kozlowski
said. “I look at all this chaos
that’s going on in the world,
but I’m still going to provide
the exact same care for my
patient because they don’t
deserve anything less.”
Daily
News
Editor
Alex
Harring can be reached at
harring@umich.edu.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
4 — Wednesday, October 7, 2020
Nursing students attend
in-person clinicals amid
coronavirus pandemic
MADDIE FOX/Daily
Nursing students Reagan Cloutier and Maureen Kozlowski stand in front of C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital Monday afternoon.
Curriculum requirements bring future nurses to the
frontlines, with no virtual options for certain training
I never thought
that something
like this would
happen ... I’m
really proud to
be learning this
profession to
be able to help
people, especially
in times like this.
Mayors discuss ways to
address COVID-19 crisis
BEN VASSAR
For The Daily
Virtual roundtable features leaders of major U.S. cities
AG office to investigate
group with ties to Weiser
Unlock Michigan collects petition signatures criminally
Michigan Attorney General
Dana
Nessel
announced
Monday that her office would
be opening an investigation
into Unlock Michigan, a state
political
action
committee
alleged to have criminally
collected petition signatures
to repeal a state law. The
statute
in
question
is
a
1945 Emergency Powers of
Governor Act being used by
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to
address the ongoing COVID-
19 pandemic in the state.
According to a press release
from Nessel’s office, a number
of residents complained that
Unlock
Michigan
obtained
their
signatures
illegally,
telling them that the petition
was for another cause.
“The
Attorney
General’s
office has received complaints
from residents who report
they
were
deceived
by
petition
circulators
who
were gathering signatures to
support the efforts of Unlock
Michigan, which is trying to
repeal the 1945 Emergency
Powers of the Governor Act,”
the release read. “Residents
said
they
were
told
the
petitions were to support
LGBTQ rights, for medical
marijuana initiatives or to
help small businesses, among
other things.”
Founded in the wake of
Whitmer’s March 23 “Stay
Home,
Stay
Safe”
order,
Unlock Michigan’s goal has
been to roll back the governor’s
COVID-19
quarantine
and
social
distancing
policies.
According
to
its
website,
the
PAC
sees
Whitmer’s
orders
as
unconstitutional
and damaging to individual
freedom.
“Unlock
Michigan
is
a
coalition
of
concerned
Michiganders who believe that
Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s
crushing lockdown of life and
business
across
Michigan
is a dangerous threat to our
livelihoods and constitutional
liberties,” the website reads.
Unlock
Michigan
spokesman Fred Wszolek told
The Daily the investigation
was politically motivated.
“It’s a partisan political
farce, which is to be expected
from this partisan political
Attorney General,” Wszolek
said. “This sham investigation
is
designed
to
deprive
Michigan citizens of their
constitutional right to initiate
legislation, but we’re not going
to allow that to happen.”
One
financial
supporter
of the PAC is Ronald Weiser,
the former chairman of the
Michigan Republican Party
and current member of the
University of Michigan’s Board
of Regents, who gave a direct
contribution of $100,000 to
the organization on July 27,
according to documents filed
with the Secretary of State.
In a message sent to The
Michigan Daily, Weiser said
that he was not familiar
with Unlock Michigan or its
activities at the time of his
donation.
“I
know
nothing
about
the investigation. I (know)
nothing
about
Unlock
Michigan,” Weiser wrote. “I
made the contribution because
of who asked me.”
He declined to name the
person who asked him to make
the contribution.
Weiser was elected to the
board, which serves as the
University’s governing body,
in 2016. He is currently the
only Republican regent; two
of the Democratic incumbents
— Mark Bernstein and Shauna
Ryder Diggs — are up for
reelection
in
November.
They will face Republican
challengers Sarah Hubbard
and Carl Meyers.
According to a Sept. 22
report from the Detroit Free
Press, a secretly recorded
video of an Unlock Michigan
training session for signature
collectors on Sept. 4 showed
that a trainer for the group
“coached
paid
petition
circulators on giving voters
false
information,
illegally
collecting signatures without
witnessing them, trespassing
on private property, and even
lying under oath.”
In a statement, Nessel said
the group’s alleged practices
represent a clear violation of
the law, and as such fall under
the purview of her office.
“Our democracy is firmly
rooted in the principles of an
informed
electorate
which
makes decisions at the polls
based on reason and beliefs
over
lies
and
deception,”
Nessel said in the press release.
“Our ballot initiative process
allows efforts with strong
public support to be presented
to the Legislature. But that
process
becomes
tainted
when
petition
circulators
manipulate and cheat to serve
their own agendas.”
Daily
News
Editor
Ben
Rosenfeld can be reached at
bbrosenf@umich.edu.
BEN ROSENFELD
Daily News Editor
ALEX HARRING
Daily News Editor