“I
was
really
confused
as to why we’re just now
implementing
asymptomatic
testing for next semester,”
Makar said. “I have friends at
other schools like Ohio State,
another big public university,
where they get tested weekly,
and it’s mandatory. I was
curious
as
to
know
why
we
didn’t
implement
that
beforehand.”
Alison Roberson, another
LSA
freshman
and
South
Quad resident, said she was
“shocked” by the plan for next
semester. Roberson stated she
returned home a month into
the fall semester, but intended
to come back next semester.
Roberson
said
she
was
disappointed by the decision
but that she felt it was the right
decision, even though she felt
“kind of just sad.”
“Even
though
we’re
all
disappointed, I think that it is
the right decision.” Roberson
said. “But I do think that they
had to make that decision
impulsively because of a lack
of safety that they took in the
first semester. First semester,
I thought the way U of M was
handling COVID was kind of
bizarre because we were told
that they were going to take
safety precautions and they
were not up to par with other
universities.”
Jennifer Rayman, class of
1994 and a mother of a freshman
living in a dorm this semester,
said she felt “betrayed” and
“blindsided” by the University.
She also expressed concerns
as an alum that the University
isn’t doing enough to support
undergraduates
during
the
COVID-19 pandemic. As of
Monday afternoon, more than
800
parents
of
University
students
have
signed
an
open
letter
criticizing
the
University’s handling of fall
semester and its plans for
winter semester.
“As an alum myself I cannot
believe these are the actions of
the place I used to call home,”
Rayman said. “The experience
my child is having seems to not
be a fraction of the one I have
had and (the University has)
perpetuated this situation...
(The
dining
experience)
has been despicable. Mental
health? (The University) has
done literally nothing for the
isolated students.”
Soneida
Rodriguez,
a
resident
adviser
and
LSA
senior,
said
she’s
been
experiencing anxiety after her
family lost their home during
the height of the COVID-19
pandemic, and keeping her job
as an RA was “high stakes” for
her.
Rodriguez also said she
felt
the
precautions
for
next semester are “in the
right direction” and should
have
been
implemented
earlier, but also maintained
the
importance
of
having
on-campus housing options.
She said students should have
a “seat at the table” when
decisions are being made.
“I think if nothing else,
this pandemic has revealed
the
importance
of
having
student voices heard, giving
students a seat at the table,
especially
student
staff
members.”
Rodriguez
said.
“Because at the end of the
day, all of these decisions,
and the lack of response
could have been prevented if
students had a seat at the table.
Students could have helped
the University respond in real
time to the issues that we were
seeing like a lack of testing
and
enforcement
of
social
distancing and other safety
measures.”
In an interview with The
Daily Monday, University of
Michigan
President
Mark
Schlissel said he does not
regret
choosing
to
make
classes in-person for the fall
semester.
“I think that we deserved as
a community a chance to try
our very best to have a good
mix of remote, in-person and
hybrid classes, and to have
as many people as possible
remain
healthy
and
make
it through the end of the
semester,”
Schlissel
said.
“Most people were successful
at doing this and some groups
were less successful at doing
this. So I don’t regret trying.
The world keeps changing in
the setting of the pandemic,
it’s novel. We’ve never been
through
this
before
as
a
university. Although the basic
principles are clear about how
to prevent transmission, we
didn’t know until we tried to
figure out how our community
would respond, how much
compliance we would get,
where the weak points turned
out to be.”
Overall, the announcement
brings drastic changes for many
students living on campus.
Engineering freshman Ashwin
Saxena said he now has to pack
up his dorms in the middle of
midterms.
“The announcement about
the winter semester really
throws
off
everything,”
Saxena said. “I think the
University’s decision to bring
us back this semester was not
well thought out and the two-
week lockdown was necessary.
Personally, I would be sad that
I won’t be able to come back,
but I realize this decision is
important for the health of the
community.”
Daily Staff Reporters Jared
Dougall and Kaitlyn Luckoff can
be reached at jdougall@umich.
edu and kluckoff@umich.edu.
place somewhere for us to do
better.”
Dwight
Wilson,
a
community
member
who
served
an
integral
role
in
advocating
for
police
reform after Rosser’s death,
traveled around the country
observing
other
cities’
methods of police reform
and oversight to bring back
to Ann Arbor. Ultimately,
efforts
by
community
members culminated in the
formation of ICPOC.
“I have no idea how many
officers cross the line, but
relatives and friends who are
law enforcement officers are
clear that they know of no
force, including their own,
where 100% of the officers
walk the straight line. Their
reputations
are
protected
when the disreputable are
held accountable. As for the
victims of killings, brutality
and
disrespect,
police
oversight is our best hope,”
Wilson wrote in a statement
to The Michigan Daily in
November of 2019.
In a memo released two
months after Rosser’s killing
in January 2015, Washtenaw
County
Prosecutor
Brian
Mackie labeled the incident
as justifiable homicide, citing
a section of the Michigan
Criminal Code stating that if
a person’s belief that deadly
force was necessary was
genuine at the time, it does
not matter if they were later
proven to be wrong about
the level of danger they were
facing.
Rosser’s killing prompted
a
series
of
protests
in
Ann Arbor. At one of the
gatherings Rosser’s sister,
Shae Ward, spoke about her
sister’s death.
“My hope is that I can get
strong enough to speak for
her,” Ward said at a January
2015
protest.
“Because
I
know her person. She would
have never attacked Officer
Ried. She would have never
made him feel that he would
have to take her life to
defuse the situation. That is
just outlandish. It totally is
outlandish.”
In
the
years
since,
University students and Ann
Arbor community members
have continued to honor
Rosser’s
memory,
holding
vigils on the anniversaries of
her death.
Members
of
the
Black
community in Ann Arbor
have cited several incidents
of over-policing and misuse
of force before and since
Rosser’s
death,
including
increased police presence
at multicultural fraternity
tailgates and alleged racial
discrimination at local bars.
In the fall of 2017, the violent
arrest of 16-year-old Ciaeem
Slaton at the Blake Transit
Center sparked a protest of
more than 100 Ann Arbor
residents outside of city hall
a week later.
Ann Arbor resident Shirley
Beckley, who at 78-years-old
has lived through decades of
protest movements in Ann
Arbor and was in attendance
at the vigil, said the city
hasn’t progressed as much
as it thinks it has in terms of
racial justice.
“I think all of you need
to understand Ann Arbor
isn’t what it pretends to be,”
Beckley said. “And we need
everybody’s help to bring
that forth, to make this the
place that it ought to be —
that they say it is.”
Beckley said it is difficult
to rebuild trust between
local authorities and the
community
when
Rosser
isn’t recognized as much as
she should be.
“You know, I don’t know
how they think we’re gonna
bridge
the
gap
between
the
community
and
the
police when you won’t even
recognize
Aura
Rosser’s
name,” Beckley said. “How
are we gonna mend and
heal when you don’t even
recognize the woman that
you killed, who is the mother
of three children? How are
we going to bridge that gap?”
After community members
spoke and led several rounds
of “Say her name!” “Aura
Rosser!” chants, the crowd
lit handheld candles and
observed
six
minutes
of
silence: one for each year
since Rosser’s death.
During those six minutes,
as the sky overhead darkened,
Ann Arbor resident Julius
Theophilus II said his mind
was set on justice.
“I was thinking of ways
that the family and the
people that this continuously
happens to — what justice
looks like to them, what
it looks like to me, what it
looks like to the country,
what
it
looks
like
for
Black people collectively,”
Theophilus said. “And if it’s
even possible.”
After
the
silence,
the
crowd moved swiftly through
downtown
Ann
Arbor,
marching down Main Street
and Liberty Street. Along the
way, several outdoor diners
showed support with raised
fists and cheers.
LSA junior Rose Sproat
said the visibility of the event
was important for those in
downtown Ann Arbor at the
time.
“It’s really important that
we’re showing them what
we want and that they can
participate too,” Sproat said.
When
the
marchers
stopped at the corner of
Liberty and State Street,
several danced in a circle to
accompany chants, trumpets
and trombones.
“Black joy is also a form of
protest,” one person said.
Next, the crowd stopped
in the shadow of the Burton
Memorial Tower to hear
a carillon piece, “Enough
is
Enough:
Never
Again
Sketches,” played by Music,
Theatre & Dance professor
Tiffany
Ng.
The
piece,
coming from the bell tower,
used a musical alphabet code
to spell out the names of
victims of police violence.
Rosser’s name was played in
measures 91 and 92, toward
the end of the piece.
After
reflecting,
Theophilus explained what
justice looks like to him.
“The people that have
suffered
the
most,
they
are in a position of power,”
Theophilus
said.
“That’s
what justice looks like to
me.”
Daily Staff Reporter Calder
Lewis and Daily News Editor
Ben Rosenfeld can be reached
at calderll@umich.edu and
bbrosenf@umich.edu.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, November 11, 2020 — 3
VIGIL
From Page 1
While
several
states
are still counting ballots,
political analysts have said
it is “mathematically, nearly
impossible”
for
Biden’s
trajectory in key states to
change.
Harris
thanked
enthusiastic supporters for
their hard work leading into
election day.
“Thank you for turning out
in record numbers to make
your voices heard,” Harris
said. “For four years you
marched and organized for
equality, justice, for our lives
and for our planet; and then
you voted.”
Harris acknowledged her
historic ascent as the first
woman to be elected to the
vice presidency.
“While I may be the first
woman in this office, I will
not be the last, because every
little girl watching tonight
sees that this is a country of
possibilities,” Harris said.
Harris said the election
was a decisive mandate of
support for their campaign.
“You
delivered
a
clear
message,” Harris said. “You
choose hope, unity, decency,
science and yes, truth. You
choose Joe Biden as the next
president of the United States
of America.”
Biden broke the record, set
in 2008 by former President
Barack Obama, for the most
votes
for
a
presidential
candidate with more than 75
million cast.
As of Saturday, Americans
are still waiting for final
tallies from swing states like
North Carolina and Georgia
since
Tuesday
evening
when polls closed across the
country.
President Donald Trump
issued a statement shortly
after the Associated Press
called the race, refusing to
concede, pointing to lawsuits
his campaign has filed in
battleground states.
“We all know why Joe
Biden is rushing to falsely
pose as the winner, and why
his media allies are trying so
hard to help him: they don’t
want the truth to be exposed,”
the statement reads. “The
simple fact is this election is
far from over … Legal votes
decide who is president, not
the news media.”
The
Trump
campaign’s
lawsuit before the Michigan
Court
of
Claims
was
dismissed as it is “unlikely
to succeed on the merits”
and the campaign’s request
for immediate relief were
denied.
Despite Trump’s baseless
claims of fraud and insistence
that the election still has not
been decided, the former vice
president urged the nation to
come together in his address
Saturday.
“This is the time to heal
in
America,”
Biden
said.
“Now that the campaign is
over — what is the people’s
will? What is our mandate? I
believe it is this: Americans
have called on us to marshal
the forces of decency and the
forces of fairness. To marshal
the forces of science and the
forces of hope in the great
battles of our time.”
In Ann Arbor, students
shared Harris and Biden’s
excitement about the results
of the race.
Music, Theatre & Dance
sophomore
Brock
Boze
celebrated on State Street
this morning and said it was
exciting
to
see
everyone
come together in a safe way.
“I’ve been getting about
three hours of sleep all week
waiting for all this to come
in,” Boze said. “... It’s been
a
really
cool
experience,
everyone is socially distanced
and masked up and I am
loving the enthusiasm.”
Daily Staff Reporter Alec
Cohen contributed reporting.
Daily Staff Reporter Sarah
Payne can be reached at
paynesm@umich.edu.
ELECTION
From Page 1
PLAN
From Page 1
ADAM MATZGER
Charles G. Overberger Collegiate
Professor of Chemistry
An online lecture. For more information,
visit events.umich.edu/event/75455,
or call 734.615.6667.
Online Event: Thursday, November 12, 2020 | 4:30 p.m.
LSA COLLEGIATE LECTURE
From Better
Health to
Improved
Lethality:
Controlling
Crystallization
of Pharmaceuticals
and Explosives
Unnikrishnan
said
he
became interested in this
work when he found out that
President Donald Trump won
in Michigan by about 10,000
votes, the same number of
people who did not vote in
his own neighborhood of
Ward 1 in Ann Arbor.
“I needed to do something
to increase voter turnout,”
Unnikrishnan
said.
“We
wanted to take on voters
that were unlikely to vote in
2020 and pursue them till
the end, until they had cast
their ballot, either absentee
or otherwise.”
Though the organization’s
initial goal was to achieve
a 75% voter turnout, the
student voter turnout in 2020
was about 50%, as seen on a
giant thermometer posted in
front of the UMMA counting
the percentage of the voting-
eligible student body that
had voted.
Unnikrishnan
said
the
turnout
started
at
about
32% at the start of early
voting
and
increased
as
Nov. 3 approached. He said
he wishes the University’s
administration offered more
clarity on how students could
vote.
“We put enormous pressure
through Faculty Senate and
even talked to the Board of
Regents,” Unnikrishnan said.
“President Schlissel sent an
email to all students, and the
email was two pages long.
Nobody reads two-page-long
emails. It could have just
read: ‘Students, you just need
your MCard, go to UMMA,
change your registration and
vote on the spot.’”
Nick
Schuler,
LSA
sophomore and spokesperson
for the University’s chapter
of
College
Republicans,
wrote in a statement that
he
was
happy
with
the
organization’s efforts to get
out the vote.
“We saw work on both
sides of the aisle to turn
out the vote and I’m glad
it worked,” Schuler said.
“Voting is a God-given right
in the United States and we
should use that. Voting is
more important than for who.
We look forward to the 2022
midterms and continuing our
efforts to elect Republicans
all across the state.”
Andrew
Schaeffler,
co-founder of the student
organization
Students
for
Biden, said the group was
excited that so many students
used the UMMA to vote.
“We are super happy to see
the large amount of turnout
among
students,
even
as
some of these numbers might
lag
behind
what
turnout
was expected,” Schaeffler
said. “(We) hope that the
University sees this as a
building block for making
voting more accessible, and
continues to utilize this..”
Daily Staff Reporters Julia
Forrest and Varsha Vedapudi
can be reached at juforres@
umich.edu
and
varshakv@
umich.edu.
TURNOUT
From Page 2
“I think all of you need to understand
Ann Arbor isn’t what it pretends to be.
And we need everybody’s help to bring
that forth, to make this the place that it
ought to be — that they say it is.”