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Wednesday, November 18, 2020
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INDEX
Vol. CXXX, No. 8
©2020 The Michigan Daily
N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
M I C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 1
STATEMENT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
SPORTS .......................17
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Since learning earlier this
month most housing contracts
for
residence
halls
will
be
canceled for the winter semester
to keep as many people as
possible off campus, freshmen
have been struggling to make
accommodations.
In an email sent on Nov. 6,
University of Michigan President
Mark
Schlissel
outlined
the
expected
changes
for
the
semester.
“To reduce density in our
residence halls, undergraduates
who don’t need to be on campus
should remain at their permanent
residences
for
the
semester
and study remotely,” Schlissel
wrote.
“U-M
Housing
will
move exclusively to single-room
occupancy.”
Since then, students currently
in dorms have been scrambling
to find off-campus housing for
next semester, mostly through
subleases starting in January.
LSA
freshman
Sophie
Steinberg said the sudden news
sparked intense competition in
the local housing market.
“I
ended
up
getting
an
apartment with my friends, but
that was a really hectic process
because places were constantly
being signed off on,” Steinberg
said. “You would call a realtor
and ask to look somewhere
because it was available online
but then they’d call you back and
say, ‘Oh, that just signed,’ and that
happened to us multiple times.”
States across the country,
including
Michigan,
are
experiencing record numbers
of COVID-19 infections. As
the cases continue to rise, the
University of Michigan hospital
system,
Michigan
Medicine,
is preparing for the increased
hospitalizations
which
are
likely to follow.
As of Thursday, Michigan has
a total of 236,235 COVID cases
and 7,811 COVID deaths. This
comes as cases in the U.S. hit
more than 10.8 million cases and
deaths reach close to 250,000.
The
number
of
COVID-19-
related
hospitalizations
has
hit record numbers, with over
65,000 nationwide for the first
time since the beginning of the
pandemic.
Gov.
Gretchen
Whitmer
warned this could be the worst
part of the pandemic yet for
the state at a press conference
Thursday.
“This is the moment that
medical
experts
have
been
warning us about and dreading
since the beginning of this
pandemic,” Whitmer said. “Our
case numbers are skyrocketing
here in Michigan.”
Robert Hyzy, an internal
medicine
and
Michigan
Medicine
medical
director
of the critical care unit, said
Michigan Medicine has been
experiencing a recent surge in
COVID-19 cases.
“The last two weeks have
really been a noticeable uptick
in activity,” Hyzy said. “Things
have really started to take off
again, unfortunately.”
The
hospital
system
is
preparing to transition certain
units back to primarily serving
COVID-19
patients.
The
hospital command center has
also been reactivated, Hyzy
said, which allows a wide
variety of people, including
doctors, nurses, maintenance
workers and infectious control
experts, to give daily updates.
Robert
Dickson,
associate
professor of medicine in the
Division of Pulmonary and
Critical Care Medicine, said
Michigan Medicine is working
to re-expand its capacity to care
for COVID-19 patients, in terms
of both space and staff.
HEALTH
JEREMY WEINE/Daily
Many freshmen scramble to find housing after winter academic plans do not renew housing contractions.
Freshmen look for new housing
after winter contracts canceled
Last-minute changes to academic plan leaves students scrambling for subleases
Michigan Medicine
anticipates spike in
COVID hospitalizations
Chief medical officer: ‘We never stopped
preparing’ to handle increase in patients
HANNAH MACKAY
Daily Staff Reporter
PAIGE HODDER
Daily Staff Reporter
Days before the University
of Michigan was set to move
to
fully
remote
instruction,
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and
Robert Gordon, director of the
Michigan Department of Health
and Human Services, put the
final nail in the coffin of what
was left of the school’s plan for a
hybrid semester.
Gordon joined Whitmer at a
press conference Sunday night
to announce new restrictions
to curb the spread of COVID-19
as statewide cases skyrocket,
breaking records.
“We are in the worst moment of
this pandemic to date,” Whitmer
said at the rare weekend briefing,
which occurred on short notice
in response to alarming trends
across the state. “The situation
has never been more dire. We are
at the precipice and we need to
take some action. As the weather
gets colder and people spend
more time indoors, this virus
will spread. More people will
get sick and there will be more
fatalities.”
The new rules from MDHHS
— which mandate colleges end
in-person classes — change very
little for the University, which is
already almost entirely remote.
However, it marks the final blow
to the school’s effort to partially
reopen for the fall semester.
After
the
University
of
Michigan released plans for the
winter
semester
incorporating
more significant measures to
mitigate COVID-19 spread on
campus, the Graduate Employees’
Organization
told
leaders,
including
University
President
Mark Schlissel, to give credit
where it is due and acknowledge
that they asked for these measures
when they went on strike in
September.
“Cite your sources President
Schlissel,” the union wrote in a
tweet responding to Schlissel’s
announcement for the winter
semester.
The
Graduate
Employees’
Organization went on strike for
two weeks at the beginning of the
semester, advocating for improved
protocol
to
manage
COVID-
19 such as widespread testing
and
accommodating
Graduate
Student
Instructors
who
are
not comfortable with teaching
in-person.
After Schlissel threatened to
sue the organization, the Graduate
Employees’ Organization accepted
an offer that members felt failed
to meet many of their demands
regarding
a
safer
pandemic
response, cutting ties with law
enforcement
and
improving
employee childcare services.
However, GEO Vice President
Erin Markiewitz said she sees
some of their previous demands
reflected in the University’s winter
plan
despite
the
University’s
failure to give recognition. In
particular,
improved
testing
capacity and more remote class
options are two aspects of the
University’s winter plan that the
GEO also had on their agenda.
“In
an
early
town
hall,
President Schlissel said something
along the lines of: our plan can’t
be
substandard
because
no
standard for a COVID plan exists,”
Markiewitz said.
“When GEO pointed to other
peer institutions as examples
of what an adequate pandemic
response plan would look like,
for instance Cornell, they said,
‘Well, they’re not the standard.’
If there was never a standard,
then why does the new plan seem
to be closer to the standard that
activists pointed towards earlier
this semester?”
ACADEMICS
SAYALI AMIN &
LEAH GRAHAM
Managing News Editors
MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily
Governor Whitmer issued a 3-week epidemic order, throwing a wrench in the University’s hybrid semester plans.
LILY GOODING
Daily Staff Reporter
Epidemic order puts an end to U’s
attempt at a hybrid fall semester
New restrictions issued by the state come after previous setbacks to school
Winter plan looks a lot
like graduate students’
demands, GEO says
During labor dispute, union asked for more
testing, universal right to work remotely
See SEMESTER, Page 3
See HOSPITAL, Page 3
See HOUSING, Page 3