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Wednesday, October 7, 2020 — 5
STEM students face overtime lectures, extra work
With
the
majority
of
classes being taught virtually
this semester, some STEM
students
are
reporting
overtime lectures and unfair
work expectations, despite
having
regular
schedules
with assigned class times.
Pharmacy student Sihyun
Kim is currently enrolled
in
the
course
Medical
Microbiology and Infectious
Diseases. According to Kim,
her
instructor
regularly
exceeds the allotted lecture
time by 20 minutes.
“When some students told
her that she needs to end
the lecture on time so that
students can get to their
next
(in-person)
classes,
she simply told them they
can just leave and watch the
recording later,” Kim said.
LSA
junior
Maddy
McPherson
shared
Kim’s
concerns regarding lectures
going overtime. McPherson
is currently taking a four-
credit biochemistry course
with multiple lectures and a
discussion each week.
This
semester,
the
course is formatted so that
students can listen to pre-
recorded lectures when it is
convenient for them. During
the assigned lecture time, the
professor holds an optional
Q&A discussion that is also
recorded for any student who
is unable to attend.
McPherson
said
this
format has affected most
of
the
duration
of
the
course’s lectures by allowing
instructors to teach over the
time
allotted.
McPherson
also
expressed
feeling
obligated to attend the Q&A
session in order to fully
understand
the
material
taught during lectures.
“In a normal semester,
we’re
supposed
to
have
lecture for two and a half
hours
and
a
discussion
that’s about an hour and
a half hours (per week),”
McPherson said. “Now that
the class is online, lectures
are now going over time.
Office hours are optional but
help clarify the material, so it
feels mandatory if you want
to do well.”
With two lectures and
a
discussion
that
should
each last 80 minutes, class
time is expected to total to
four hours each week, but
McPherson said she found
that she devoted nearly six
and half hours of her week
attending that single class,
not including study time.
LSA
professor
Randy
Stockbridge is one of the
two
instructors
of
an
introductory
biochemistry
course.
According
to
Stockbridge,
about
20
percent of the class chooses
to attend the instructor-led
discussion portion of the
course synchronously. More
students choose to watch the
recording later.
Stockbridge
said
the
instructing team decided to
format class time this way
because they were hoping to
give students another way to
engage with the material and
the professors.
“Normally during a class
period, we do active learning
activities
like
iClicker
questions
and
there’s
the
opportunity
for
the
instructor to ask, ‘OK, does
this make sense? Are there
any questions at this point
in the lecture?’” Stockbridge
said. “We just don’t have
that with the format where
we just record lectures. We
thought it would serve the
students better to have sort
of a standardized format in
which these questions could
be taken.”
Stockbridge said she was
unaware of any complaints
from students, but mentioned
that the instructing team
intends to hold a discussion
later in the semester to
address any concerns from
students
about
the
class
format.
Introduction to Electronic
Circuits
is
another
class
that often extends over its
allotted time, Engineering
junior Emily Grim said.
The course is four credits,
and includes two lectures,
one discussion and one lab
to complete each week. The
course instructor also posts
pre-recorded
videos
for
students to watch in advance
of the lecture.
Grim said the main issue
with this format is a lack
of clarity regarding what
components of the class she
should prioritize to succeed.
With
both
pre-recorded
videos
and
synchronous
lectures, Grim said she has
been struggling to keep up
with the intense workload.
“After a week of it, it was
way too much work for me, so
I decided to only watch the
pre-lectures. The professor
made it sound like they were
the majority of the material,
and the Zoom lectures were
just doing examples,” Grim
said.
By
not
attending
the
synchronous lecture portion
of the class, Grim believed
that she had actually missed
crucial
information
she
would need to know to pass.
“Turns
out,
the
Zoom
lectures
had
become
the
place where he was doing
examples
and
covering
important topics in more
detail, despite saying you
could
asynchronously
do
the class with only the pre-
lectures,” Grim said.
As an Engineering student
with an already challenging
course load, Grim said she
was stressed about balancing
her other courses given how
much time she devotes to
Introduction to Electronic
Circuits.
Grim said she feels like the
workload would be lighter
if she were taking the class
during a normal semester.
“I wonder how different
this
class
would
be
in
person,”
Grim
said.
“My
professor
mentioned
that
some
material
will
be
skipped over compared to
previous semesters, yet it
seems like there’s way more
content in videos I have to
parse through compared to
the time I would’ve spent in
person.”
Daily Staff Reporter Lily
Gooding can be reached at
goodingl@umich.edu.
LILY GOODING
Daily Staff Reporter
Employees
at
Om
of
Medicine, a recreational and
medicinal cannabis dispensary
in
downtown
Ann
Arbor,
have received backlash from
management for forming a union,
according to both former and
current employees. Employees
allege this backlash has included
the firing of three prominent
pro-union
employees
along
with increased surveillance and
stricter standards for employees
still at the store.
On Sept. 23, employees at Om
sent a letter of recognition to the
company’s leadership, requesting
the company acknowledge the
formation of the union. This
would
allow
employees
to
create a formal unit to bargain
collectively with management to
secure wages and benefits, create
a safe workplace environment,
discuss racial injustices and
address other issues important
to the workers at Om.
In the letter, employees urged
the company to swiftly recognize
their union and refrain from
holding compulsory employee
meetings espousing anti-union
rhetoric.
“We ask that you commit to
a fair and cooperative process
as we move forward together,”
the letter reads. “This means
avoiding
outside
anti-union
consultants and lawyers who
might attempt to bully, threaten
or instill fear among us. It means
not
scheduling
compulsory
captive
audience
meetings
where we are forced to listen to
anti-union rhetoric. It means
respecting our rights and our
carefully considered decision to
unionize.”
Om leadership denied the
demands
to
recognize
the
union and will instead initiate
a fair and anonymous election
process
under
the
National
Labor Relations Act to formally
recognize the union.
Shortly after the letter was
delivered to management, three
Om employees were fired from
the company.
Lisa
Conine,
former
Om
community
outreach
coordinator for more than four
years and one of the employees
let go from the company, said the
employees hoped management
would
recognize
the
union
as a way to open discussion
around
employee
working
environments. Conine said the
decision to fire employees for
sending the letter was a strong
message to the community that
they no longer supported the
employees’ involvement in social
justice work.
“They fired us and tried
to escort us out almost like
criminals,” Conine said. “I’ve
been there for four years, and
they tried to make me leave out
the back door with an escort, and
it was very, very painful.”
That same day, the cannabis
store closed early, and employees
protested outside of the store,
leading many to question the
future of the company.
A current employee at Om,
who
requested
to
remain
anonymous
due
to
fear
of
retaliation from their employer,
said the workplace environment
completely shifted when the
letter of recognition was sent to
management.
“We know they’re watching us
constantly,” the employee said.
“It makes me personally feel very
paranoid. I feel like I can’t step
the wrong way without being
told I’m doing the wrong thing.”
Mark Passerini, co-founder of
Om, told The Daily in an email
statement that providing a safe
and fair working environment
for Om employees is a critical
point in their mission as a
company.
“Our Omies are not only
valued
members
of
our
community, they are the people
vital to fulfilling our mission,”
Passerini wrote. “We strive to
make our Omies proud of their
place of employment.”
In April 2019, Om was acquired
by
4Front
Venture
Mission
Dispensaries,
a
nation-wide
cannabis investment company.
Since the new transition, Conine
said there has been difficulty
in maintaining Om’s values to
remain focused on the patients,
the medicinal side of care and
educating customers on cannabis
treatment.
“Quickly, it became pretty
evident that the goal of the
company was to be more just
operations-focused, efficiently-
focused, focused on revenue,”
Conine said. “And so we’ve been
speaking up and kind of pushing
back on a lot of changes, ever
since the beginning.”
4Front directed The Daily to
Passerini’s statement.
Passerini said Om is one
of
the
longest
operating
dispensaries in the country
and is dedicated to advancing
cannabis reform and serving
its patients and customers with
quality cannabis products in a
safe and responsible manner.
“Om of Medicine is also
committed to equal employment
opportunity, treating everyone
fairly
and
maintaining
an
environment
free
of
discrimination,
harassment
and
intimidation,”
Passerini
wrote. “Om of Medicine strictly
prohibits conduct from anyone
— including customers — that
violates this policy. While we
do not comment on personnel
matters,
our
employment
decisions are consistent with
our mission, values and policies.”
A key reason for deciding
to unionize has been issues
surrounding
race
at
the
dispensary,
particularly
in
light of the summer’s protests
surrounding the police killing of
George Floyd, says Ana Gomulka,
the former social equity program
coordinator at Om and one of the
three employees let go from the
company.
A flashpoint for employees
came this summer when a
former
delivery
driver,
who
was Black, asked for permission
to forgo a delivery to a more
conservative suburb in the area
because he worried about his
safety as a Black man who would
be carrying multiple ounces
of marijuana in a vehicle, even
though it was legal. The manager
at the time, however, refused the
request and made the delivery
driver complete the delivery
anyway, after which employees
decided to start organizing and
having conversations.
“We took action as a team, the
employees and said, you know,
this is not okay,” Gomulka said
“We held a space for each other
to talk about what actions we
needed to see from corporate
moving forward in order to
feel safe and secure in our own
workspace.”
Gomulka and other employees
were eventually successful in
getting managers at the store
level to undergo implicit racial
bias training, but not in getting
members of the board and
corporate leadership to do the
same, as they had hoped.
In addition to the episode
with the delivery driver, another
point of tension Gomulka and
other employees have had with
the board and store leadership
has been their refusal to put
out a statement in support of
Black Lives Matter, something
dozens of companies did in the
aftermath of the George Floyd
protests.
For Gomulka, the lack of a
public statement surrounding
Black
Lives
Matter
was
particularly concerning given
the
racial
makeup
of
the
leadership of the company.
“All
leadership
in
this
company is white and this is a
national
company,”
Gomulka
said.
“The
entire
board
is
white, all the investors are
white, and we confronted them
and we said you know this is a
problem for us because there’s
no
representation.
We
need
representation and we need an
actual public statement about
Black Lives Matter, and the
company refused to put it out.
They told us that they didn’t
want to be political.”
4Front Ventures CEO Leo
Gontmakher eventually sent out
a company-wide email, which
was obtained by The Daily,
commenting
on
Black
Lives
Matter and the protests. While
the statement acknowledged the
disproportionate
incarceration
of people of color for drug crimes
and said the company “stand(s)
in solidarity with the peaceful
protestors helping bring large
numbers of people out of their
state of complacency,” employees
like Gomulka were upset by the
statement’s final paragraph in
which Gontmakher seemed to
argue that people of differing
viewpoints smoking cannabis
together could help to heal the
racial divide.
“This
letter
was
very
insensitive … it basically said,
you know, at the end of the day,
if we could all smoke a joint
together, racism would go away,”
Gomulka said.
The final paragraph of the
statement read, “And not to
trivialize the matters at hand,
but one is left to wonder what
would happen if some of these
communities in opposition could
sit down and share a joint and
talk it out, taking advantage of
one of the appealing attributes
of cannabis. We all have so much
more in common than we have in
difference.”
The
unwillingness
of
4Front and Om to make public
statements about Black Lives
Matter, even if in an effort to
refrain from being political,
is
particularly
upsetting
to
Gomulka because the issue of
the
prohibition
of
cannabis
and racism are fundamentally
connected.
“They’re making money off of
a plant that has really devastated
Black communities, and all they
have to do is acknowledge and
give back, and their refusal
to do that has really made it
an uncomfortable and unsafe
environment for their Black (and)
Brown
employees,”
Gomulka
said. “When Black men are going
to prison at unfathomable rates,
things we’re still dealing with
to this day, but we have large
corporations buying everything
up and demanding that they
refuse to be political because of
their white power, because of the
position and privilege they’re in,
it becomes a very large issue.”
Daily Staff Reporters Carter
Howe and Kristina Zheng can be
reached at tcbhowe@umich.edu
and krizheng@umich.edu.
Employees at Om of Medicine allege harmful
work environment, backlash after forming union
Workers say management fired three prominent pro-union employees, upped surveillance and stricter standards at store
RYAN LITTLE/Daily
Former and current Om of Medicine employees allege the dispensary facilitates a toxic workplace environment.
Asynchronous courses present unique difficulties for certain fields at the Universities after the shift to remote learning
CATER HOWE &
KRISTINA ZHENG
Daily Staff Reporters