The
Michigan
Daily
Administration Beat sat down with
University of Michigan President
Mark Schlissel to discuss the plan
for the winter semester, why the
University changed its approach
on
testing
and
enforcement
policies, regulating Fraternity &
Sorority Life and the impact of the
election on campus.
This interview has been edited
and condensed for clarity.
TMD: In the announcement
about winter semester plans,
you said the University had an
“unacceptable level” of COVID-
19 cases. In your opinion, how did
that happen?
MS: Well, I would say the vast
majority of students have been
following, as strictly as they
can, the guidance we put out
about masks and distancing and
small groups and hand washing.
But when we investigate the
cases, we find that people let
their guard down and the cases
are being transmitted in social
circumstances where too many
people
are
getting
together,
they’re not wearing their masks
and they’re causing clusters
of infection. And when that
happens at a high enough rate
of many, many new cases a day,
it runs the risk of exceeding
our
capacity
to
do
case
investigations and to quickly
isolate people who are infected
and to track down their contacts
to keep it from spreading even
further. And that’s actually what
resulted in the public health
order that we cooperated with
on the campus as a whole, first
on Mary Markley Residence
Hall, but then more broadly on
the undergraduate students.
TMD: So do you regret
opening
the
dorms
and
everything for the semester,
given the “unacceptable level?”
MS: 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. So I
don’t regret trying. 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. I also
think people are suffering a
little bit from (what) someone
termed COVID fatigue, the sign
of relentlessness of having to
always have your mask on and
always being in small groups
and always washing your hands.
It just wears on people, so I
think it’s gotten tougher as the
semester’s gone along, and all of
those things have led, I think, to
more cases.
TMD: Many colleges pursued
a strategy similar to U-M’s 2021
winter semester in the fall, and
many elements of the new plan
for winter semester, like the
right to work remotely and more
testing, are things the Graduate
Employees’
Organization
asked for during their strike
in September. Why didn’t you
agree to these provisions then?
MS: Back in September, we
started out the school year with
80% of our classes remote, and
the rest were either hybrid or
in person. As the semester’s
gone on, we’ve become more
remote and less in person. We
worked with the GEOs and
basically got to the stage where
any graduate instructor that
didn’t feel comfortable working
in person, we were able to
accommodate. And the good
news is there have been few,
if any, infections amongst our
graduate students. It’s largely
undergrads, and it’s largely
freshmen
and
sophomore
undergrads, which is where
most of the transmission has
been. In terms of testing, we’ve
ramped up our capacity through
the semester. We’re at the
highest point now we’ve been.
In hindsight, you know, there
are some schools that made a
big early investment in testing.
They’ve had some good success
and some less good success … So
testing is one component that’s
important to place a lid on the
number of cases and to prevent
their spread.
But if you don’t wear masks,
stay in small groups, keep
distance from others, you can
test all you want, and there’ll
still be lots of disease. You know,
back in the very beginning of the
semester, there was an option
to
purchase
large
amounts
of testing from commercial
companies. But at the time, the
turnaround time on those tests
was between three days and
seven days. If it takes you that
long to get a result, the testing
doesn’t prevent the spread of
disease because all the people
who have the disease didn’t find
out about it for almost a week So
commercial testing in the early
days of the semester would not
have helped us, but through
the semester, working with a
local startup, we’ve made the
investments that have ramped
up the level of testing, and we’re
now at a capacity around 9,000
or 10,000 tests a week. And
by the time the new semester
begins, we’ll be up to 12,000 to
15,000, and if we need to, we
can go further than that. So
we’ve built the capacity.
TMD: Can you explain more
about how mandatory weekly
testing will be administered
and enforced for those who live
off campus but use on-campus
facilities next semester?
This semester looks different:
masks are required, most classes
are virtual, social gatherings
are limited and exploring the
streets of Ann Arbor is regulated
by laws and limitations. But
for some, being a University of
Michigan student this semester
means sitting at their computer
dressed in maize and blue, and
trying to stay awake during a
lecture while 12 hours ahead of
Ann Arbor’s Eastern Standard
Time.
The
University
allowed
students to return to campus
this fall with limited in-person
classes,
but
for
many
international students, traveling
became more difficult during the
ongoing COVID-19 pandemic
and the restrictions that differ
from country to country.
Time zone differences put
international students on new
schedules
For LSA sophomore Rachna
Iyer, who is currently living
in Mumbai, India, the biggest
adjustment has been managing
the time difference. Iyer is on
Indian Standard Time, which
is 10-and-a-half hours ahead of
Ann Arbor.
“One of the biggest differences
is having a different structure in
my day,” Iyer said. “If someone’s
in the same time zone, it’s easier
to have a more normal structure
of the day or like you wake up,
you go to classes, you have lunch,
you do homework and then you
see friends. But for people living
in a different time zone.”
Iyer completes most of her
school work during the late hours
of the night in Mumbai. Students
can complete homework and
asynchronous classes during the
day, but some class functions
require synchronous activities.
“My new thing is that I need
to wake up before the sun sets
here,” Iyer said. “I can at least
pretend to maintain a little bit of
sanity. If I wake up, and it’s dark
outside, I would lose my mind.”
The time differences have
been an issue across the board
for international students at
the University, according to
International Center Director
Judith Pennywell.
Pennywell said the use of
asynchronous class, a strategy
that allows instructors to publish
work and students to complete it
at their own pace throughout the
day, has allowed students more
flexibility than if they had every
class at a scheduled time.
“While many instructors have
changed from a synchronous
to
asynchronous
style
or
rescheduled
their
classes
to
times
of
day
to
better
accommodate
international
students,
others
have
not,”
Pennywell said. “It requires
some international students to
be available for synchronous
classes very early in the morning
or late at night, at times when
they might normally be asleep.”
Though
asynchronous
classes allow more leeway in
mitigating
time
differences,
international
students
said
there are still other problems
that going asynchronous doesn’t
automatically fix.
Engineering junior Jingxuan
Wu is learning from China, 12
hours ahead of EST. Wu said the
issue can extend beyond class
time into things like scheduled
exam times. Wu has taken
midterms that started anywhere
from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m.
“For the exam time, there’s no
time alternatives, so you can’t
change anything, you just need
to go,” Wu said. “Midterms are
usually scheduled during class
times, or after class. What seems
like an ideal time for a midterm
for Ann Arbor students, is quite
different
for
international
students.”
LSA freshman Shiryn Anissa
Noor Affendi said taking a
class
asynchronously
as
an
international student can also
create barriers in trying to get
help. Affendi said she often has
to rely on email to communicate
with her instructors.
“My
asynchronous
classes
are definitely more challenging
just because I’m mostly teaching
myself the material,” Affendi
said. “I can only get help via
email, so each problem I face
really boils down to, ‘Can I
answer this myself, or am I
willing to wait two business days
for them to reply?’”
LSA
senior
Jing
Dong,
who is taking classes from
China, said Graduate Student
Instructors will typically have
delayed responses to questions
because her usual work time
is the middle of the night in
Ann Arbor. However, despite
this inconvenience, Dong said
there aren’t many other notable
differences in learning this year.
“Because
I’m
a
computer
science major, personally, I don’t
think taking classes online would
be any different from taking
classes offline because even if
I’m in person, I would probably
watch lecture recordings, but I
guess that’s pretty specific to my
major,” Dong said.
Taking classes at night allows
international students to use
their time during the day to
prioritize what’s important to
them, according to Dong. She
said having the new schedule
has allowed her to take on
new roles such as a research
assistantship because of the
flexibility. Affendi uses the time
she has during her day to spend
time with family and friends.
Being off-campus changes
learning, social experience
In
addition
to
the
time
difference,
there
are
a
variety of global, social and
environmental
elements
that
have altered students’ learning
environments. For Iyer, one is
the heat in India that makes it
hard to focus.
“Giving a timed exam is
harder, virtually you just don’t
really know what circumstances
someone’s in,” Iyer said. “It’s
really hot in India, for example,
and to be giving an exam at this
time, it’s just really hot, which
makes it harder to focus.”
Academics is only part of the
experience of being a college
student — and international
students said they missed the
experience of being in Ann Arbor.
Besides not being on campus, the
virtual events hosted by clubs
and organizations often don’t
accommodate
international
students’ time zone differences.
Wu said it is particularly
difficult to work with libraries
and shared spaces.
“The
main
thing
I
miss
about campus is libraries and
in-person office hours,” Wu said.
“I think it’s more convenient
and it’s also harder to connect
with classmates and friends
when you’re abroad in another
country.”
Outside of school, Affendi,
who lives in Malaysia and is 13
hours ahead of Ann Arbor, said
it has become nearly impossible
to make friends. She feels like
she would have to sacrifice
getting sleep to be able to attend
extracurricular meetings.
“I’ve always loved school for
the friends I gain in and outside
of class,” Affendi said. “It’s hard
to approach a stranger when
everyone is virtually in their
own bubble. I really miss the
support system of friends in my
classes and lately it just feels like
it’s every man for themselves,
which makes me feel really
lonely.”
Iyer hasn’t been able to see
any of her friends in person since
classes ended last March.
Dong said she has not been
able to participate in many
sorority events because they are
not virtual. She said she feels
especially sad for freshmen, who
have never had time on campus
to make connections.
“If you’re not on campus,
social life is hard,” Dong said. “I
would imagine there’s a big hole
in the experience for freshmen,
and I feel sorry for them.”
The University has put on
many virtual events and lecture
discussions in order to create
community, but international
students
are
still
finding
these difficult to participate
in, Iyer said. Pennywell said
the
International
Center
is
working to create a virtual
community that accommodates
international students and their
time zone differences.
“We have made an effort
to record certain University
programs, such as the IC and
Ginsberg
Center’s
Understanding
the U.S. Presidential Election,”
Pennywell
said.
“There
are
many wonderful UMS Digital
presentations,
so
students
overseas can enjoy them at their
leisure.”
Daily
News
Contributor
Shannon Stocking can be reached
at sstockin@umich.edu
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
4 — Wednesday, November 11, 2020
International students
talk virtual challenges
DESIGN BY MICHELLE FAN
Remote learning brings time zone difficulties, altered social scene
Schlissel discusses winter
semester, recent election
U-M President says ‘I don’t regret trying’ regarding fall plan
New format of learning brings challenges in time management
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
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