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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

