W

hen I first 
a r r i v e d 
to 
cam-

pus as a freshman, I was 
brimming with a sense 
of 
conflicting 
excite-

ment and agitation. As 
an international student 
from Canada, most of my 
knowledge of the Ameri-
can college experience 
came from “Pitch Per-
fect” and online forums 
like Reddit and College 
Confidential. 
While 
I 

was looking forward to 
making friends and so-
cializing, I also carried 
with me a little anxiety 
about where I would fit 
in. Football was never 
a part of my life before 
college and the thought 
of living alone away from 
home scared me. Luck-
ily, after a semester of 
exploring Ann Arbor res-
taurants and bonding, I 
found a group of people I 
love and made memories 
that I could cherish for a 
lifetime. It seemed all of 
my preoccupations dissi-
pated into worries I once 
knew.

However, the class of 

2024 may not be as lucky 
as I was. To contain the 
spread 
of 
COVID-19, 

most University social spaces and facili-
ties were closed, drastically reducing op-
portunities for freshmen to form their 
own communities. Students can no longer 
meet for lunch in South Quad dining hall, 
or study for classes together in the Shap-
iro Undergraduate Library. Consequently, 
some parents began to petition for the 
University to reopen dining halls and im-
plement further in-person instruction to 
improve the University’s students’ mental 
well-being. As someone who deeply sym-
pathizes with the freshmen’s situations, I 
reached out to a few of these parents and 
invited them to share their stories.

Nanci Bramson, the mother of an LSA 

freshman, expressed her concerns to me 
about the aforementioned challenges ex-
actly. She explained that the lack of COV-
ID-catered social spaces or programming 
in such isolating times is problematic for 
students trying to make their way.

“(The University is) not giving any op-

portunities to these 18- and 19-year-olds 
to socialize, and instead they are just pe-
nalizing them,” Bramson complained. 
“And the only ways they can socialize are 
absolutely dangerous.”

She reprimanded the University for 

not treating students as human beings 
with social needs and the lack of avail-
able socially-distanced programs such as 
book clubs, study groups and game nights. 
Bramson pointed to another large public 
university, the University of Pittsburgh, 
which has established shelter pods within 
residences to help students better transi-
tion into campus communities in a public 
health-informed manner.

“The University is really failing them. 

It’s just taking their money for nothing,” 
Bramson said. “There could’ve been social 
opportunities. (The University) should’ve 
engaged their RAs more, help(ing) them 
create relationships with the kids.”

And while Bramson acknowledges the 

lack of support residential staff received 
from the University in the beginning of 
the school year, she also laments their 
lack of involvement in freshmen’s tran-
sition. Indeed, in early September, more 
than 100 residential advisers went on 

strike, demanding increased COVID-19 
safety measures and accessible testing. As 
a result, most RAs were not able to pro-
vide students with guidance during the 
time when many new students needed it 
the most. According to Bramson, both of 
her daughter’s two RAs quit: one within 
the first week of school and one at the be-
ginning of the stay-in-place order. The ab-
sence of RAs and lack of community-wide 
engagement has created another barrier 
for freshmen to socialize safely. 

Robert Liu, the father of another LSA 

freshman, also shared the stories of his 
daughter’s social difficulties. While he un-
derstands the University’s preference for 
online modes of instruction, he considers 
in-person interactions and public dining 
spaces crucial to the college experience. 
He told me that he thinks the University 
is doing a satisfying job in containing the 
virus, and feels hopeful about the reopen-
ing of dining halls in the future. But Liu is 
afraid that since the class of 2024 are the 
first generation of people born after 9/11, 
these students may be more susceptible to 
mental health issues.

“I was just hoping that nobody looks 

down upon this freshmen class as snow-
flakes or over-sensitive people,” Liu ex-
plained. “Any mental health issue is jus-
tifiable.”

However, while parents like Bramson 

believed that the administration had com-
pletely failed its students in both physical 
and mental health, Neil Cadman is appre-
ciative of the University’s caution. Cad-
man, whose daughter is a freshman living 
in East Quad Residence Hall, told me that 
his daughter has had an amazing experi-
ence in dorms. Though Cadman’s daugh-
ter has rarely interacted with her RA, she 
was able to form a small group of close 
friends in her marching band via Zoom 
over the summer, and maintained these 
relationships throughout the semester.

“I know that there are so many kids 

who are having such difficult social is-
sues, but our daughter has really accli-
mated through the band and (from) hav-
ing a roommate she really likes,” Cadman 
explained. “The stars really fell into align-
ment for her.”

Cadman stated that one of the rea-

sons why he felt comfortable sending his 
daughter to campus was because of Uni-
versity President Mark Schlissel’s back-
ground in immunology. Cadman had faith 
in an administration that understands and 
makes its decisions based on science. 

“When my daughter moved to the dorm, 

we essentially signed an agreement with the 
University,” Cadman explained. “(Schlis-
sel’s medical background) was part of our 
reasons for feeling comfortable sending her. 
(The fact) that the leader of the university 
was a medical doctor, and that he under-
stood that science has to run this.”

Yet he also acknowledged that perhaps 

because his own daughter is doing better 
mentally than the majority of freshmen, 
he appreciated the University for placing 
safety of the community as a first priority. 
Indeed, though the University has exercised 
a certain degree of caution in its fall reopen-
ing plan, bringing students back on campus 
has also drastically increased the population 
density in Ann Arbor. Along with the start of 
the flu season and escalating student gath-
erings, test positivity rate in Washtenaw 
County has surged from 1.7 percent on Aug. 
28 to 4.1 percent on Nov. 5. 

“The difference in going to a place like 

Michigan is in those things that you can’t 
measure,” Cadman stated. “I feel horrible, 
but not enough to make the universities 
all go back though, and put everybody at 
risk!”

Since most of them view the Univer-

sity’s situation from a distance, each par-
ent shared a different perspective on the 
policies. However, as a student who’s ex-
periencing a hybrid semester firsthand in 
Ann Arbor, I share a mix of their concerns. 
While it is certainly difficult to maintain a 
good balance between mental health and 
physical safety, I think the University has 
failed us in both. 

Ever since mid-September, I have re-

ceived 17 notifications of positive cases 
in East Quad, where each notification in-
dicated one or more cases. I see students 
who eat in indoor lounges without social 
distancing, mainly because they have no-
where else to go. I know people who sus-
pected symptoms but did not get tested 

because they did not 
want to be isolated 
in a facility that has 
roaches and hallways 
crowded by trash. Cre-
ating a safe space for 
students to study and 
socialize is the foun-
dation of our mental 
health, and because of 
the University’s vague 
and 
inconsiderate 

policies, the admin-
istration has lost the 
students’ trust since 
the first month of the 
semester.

But just like what 

Bramson, 
Cadman 

and Liu believe, this 
doesn’t 
mean 
we 

should not hope for 
better or make our 
voices heard. 

On Friday morning, 

when I took a break 
from monitoring the 
election 
and 
typing 

this piece, I received 
an email from Schlis-
sel regarding the Uni-
versity’s winter 2021 
plan. Though I appre-
ciated the University 
for listening to student 
concerns and enhanc-
ing safety measures, 
the updated housing 
terms, which included 

limited residence and canceling of win-
ter contracts, caught me off guard. As a 
result, I quickly followed up with the in-
terviewed parents again to see if their im-
mediate reactions changed their perspec-
tives. Liu told me that her daughter was 
greatly upset by the news and concerned 
about her work-study position.

“I feel for my daughter, her friends and 

everybody at the (University of Michigan) 
community,” he said. “I told her that the 
University is trying to look after every-
body’s health, and (my daughter said that) 
she cares more about her mental health.”

On the other hand, Bramson was scram-

bling to get her hands on available off-
campus housing options for the upcom-
ing semester. Cadman also expressed his 
concern about the potential deterioration 
of his daughter’s mental health at home. 
However, he completely respects the Uni-
versity’s policies and puts his daughter’s 
decision first.

“I actually feel worse for the class 

of 2021, because those seniors are go-
ing through what the class of 2024 went 
through in high school last year. And I 
know how hard that is,” Cadman lament-
ed. “At least my daughter has maybe three 
years of normal college.”

The University’s cautious winter plan 

may put us back on track to return to nor-
mal for fall 2021, but parents’ concerns 
of students’ exacerbated mental health 
are not baseless. Just recently, a student 
at Grace College in Indiana passed away 
alone in her dorm room, with COVID-19 
being one of the contributing factors 
to her death. In the most recent winter 
2021 plan, the University has merely in-
troduced two academic “well-being day” 
breaks and an expansion of Counseling 
and Psychological Services team to sup-
port student mental health. Though such 
passive initiatives can relieve students’ 
stress and depressive feelings, they do not 
actively address the source of these men-
tal health difficulties: isolation. While the 
faster things return to normal the better 
our college experience will be, the Uni-
versity must recognize the existing issues 
at hand and resolve them individually.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
statement

Parents, COVID-19 
and pushing policy at 
the ‘U’

BY LOLA YANG, STATEMENT CORRESPONDENT

ILLUSTRATION BY MAGGIE WIEBE

Wednesday, November 11, 2020 — 15 

