The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is publishing weekly on Wednesdays for the Fall 2020 semester by students at the University of Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office for $2. If you would like a current copy of the paper mailed to you, please visit store. pub.umich.edu/michigan-daily-buy-this-edition to place your order. ERIN WHITE Managing Editor ekwhite@michigandaily.com SAYALI AMIN and LEAH GRAHAM Managing News Editors news@michigandaily.com Senior News Editors: Barbara Collins, Claire Hao, Alex Harring, Ben Rosenfeld, Emma Stein, Liat Weinstein Investigative Editor: Zayna Syed Assistant News Editors: Iulia Dobrin, Julia Forrest, Jasmin Lee, Calder Lewis, Angelina Little, Hannah Mackay, Sarah Payne, Emma Ruberg, Julia Rubin, Jenna Siteman, Varsha Vedapudi, Kristina Zheng EMILY CONSIDINE and BRITTANY BOWMAN Editorial Page Editors tothedaily@michigandaily.com Senior Opinion Editors: Elizabeth Cook, Zack Blumberg, Krystal Hur, Min Soo Kim, Joel Weiner JOHN DECKER and JULIANNA MORANO Managing Arts Editors arts@michigandaily.com ALLISON ENGKVIST and ANNIE KLUSENDORF Managing Photo Editors photo@michigandaily.com MAGDALENA MIHAYLOVA Managing Statement Editor statement@michigandaily.com Deputy Editors: Andie Horowitz, Marisa Wright MADISON GAGNE and SADIA JIBAN Managing Copy Editors copydesk@michigandaily.com Senior Copy Editors: Olivia Bradish, Sophie Kephart, Silas Lee, Olivia Sedlacek, Ellie Scott PARTH DHYANI and SIMRAN PUJJI Managing Online Editors webteam@michigandaily.com Senior Web Developers: Abha Panda, Rohan Prashant, Jonathan Liu ALEC COHEN and ELI SIDER Managing Video Editors video@michigandaily.com Senior Michigan in Color Editors: Zoha Bharwani, Lora Faraj, Ayomide Okunade, Gabrijela Skoko Senior Sports Editors: Daniel Dash, Lily Friedman, Connor Brennan, Brendan Roose, Kent Schwartz, Lane Kizziah, Rian Ratnavale Assistant Sports Editors: Jared Greenspan, Nick Stoll, Drew Cox, Aidan Woutas, Abby Snyder, Jack Kingsley Senior Video Editor: Iulia Dobrin Senior Social Media Editors: Kristina Zheng, Ria Dubey, Ryan Postman, Haley Johnson, Atticus Raasch, Asha Lewis Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com ARTS SECTION arts@michigandaily.com SPORTS SECTION sports@michigandaily.com NEWS TIPS news@michigandaily.com LETTERS TO THE EDITOR tothedaily@michigandaily.com EDITORIAL PAGE opinion@michigandaily.com ANITA MICHAUD Business Manager ammichau@michigandaily.com ELIZABETH LAWRENCE Editor in Chief esla@michigandaily.com PHOTOGRAPHY SECTION photo@michigandaily.com NEWSROOM 734-418-4115 opt.3 CORRECTIONS corrections@michigandaily.com THEO MACKIE and ETHAN SEARS Managing Sports Editors sportseditors@michigandaily.com Senior Arts Editors: Jo Chang, Elise Godfryd, Zoe Phillips, Jonah Mendelson, Ally Owens Arts Beat Editors: Samantha Cantie, Dana Pierangeli, Andrew Pluta, Cassandra Mansuetti, Anish Tamhaney, Sophia Yoon CHRISTINE JEGARL and LIZZY RUEPPEL Managing Design Editors design@michigandaily.com Senior Design Editor: Hibah Mirza MAYA MOKH and DEVAK NANUA Michigan in Color Editors michiganincolor@michigandaily.com JOHN GRIEVE and BEN KORN Managing Social Media Editors Editorial Staff Business Staff Senior Photo Editors: Madeline Hinkley, Asha Lewis, Miles Macklin Assistant Photo Editors: Julia Schachinger, Ryan Little, Emma Mati, Sophia Afendoulis, Becca Mahon MOLLY WU Creative Director SAMANTHA SMALL and SONYA VOGEL Managing Podcast Editors RYAN KELLY Sales Manager With a more stringent, fully-online winter semester on the horizon, students will continue dealing with mental health struggles due to isolation. Because of this, the University of Michigan’s Counseling and Psychological Services plans to increase resources. CAPS Director Todd Sevig said the office is adding “new services in addition to individual counseling that students can utilize.” “We have received increased allocations for additional staff for Winter and beyond,” Sevig wrote. “So, yes we are making some changes for the rest of this semester and for Winter to better meet current needs.” Sevig said they have filled half of the new counseling positions and are collaborating with University students, administration and other Big 10 counseling centers to use the remaining funds most effectively. “We have actually filled 4 of the new 8 positions and they started this fall,” Sevig wrote. “The 4 new ones we have filled have helped us provide more services in our embedded model. We are actively considering the best way to allocate service with the remaining 4 positions — both short term for winter and longer term for beyond this year.” The embedded model aims to install at least one full-time, specialized social worker or psychologist in each University school. While wait times for initial consultations with a counselor are currently only 2-3 days, these wait times have varied significantly this fall. Throughout the semester, students reported increased feelings of isolation and mental health struggles, raising concerns that resources at CAPS could be stretched thin. Students faced long wait times even before the COVID-19 pandemic. In an email to The Michigan Daily, Sevig said most wait times during the semester were usually “1.5- 2.5 weeks” but that CAPS has seen “unpredicted surges in demand” since mid-October. Sevig said the increase in demand is caused by the challenges students are experiencing with the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re devoting every available resource to meet the need because we don’t want the wait to be that long,” Sevig wrote. To facilitate mental health and well-being for the winter term, the university also announced two mid-week, one-day “well-being breaks” without any scheduled academic activities on Feb. 24 and March 23. LSA sophomore Ashley Ke said she used CAPS this fall, but felt there was a stigma around seeking professional help for mental health. Ke said CAPS provided her short-term relief from the everyday stresses of the pandemic. “I feel like in general, people seeking professional help are very stigmatized, and I think it’s been slowly getting better in terms of being talked about more,” Ke said. “I think in terms of just getting my feelings out about being stressed about classes because of COVID, or relationships and friendships, a lot of which has been exacerbated because of COVID, CAPS has been helpful.” Ke said mostly online classes and social distancing precautions have affected her mental health. “I’m very safe about following guidelines and so I don’t really leave my room, which definitely has consequences,” Ke said. “It’s hard to do work in the same place that you sleep and eat, and also I think it’s really forced a lot of us to confront holding ourselves accountable.” CAPS uses an online scheduling system where students can sign up for appointments. Throughout this semester, students have experienced varying wait times for appointments with counselors. Ke, who scheduled her initial consultation online at the beginning of the semester in mid-September, said her experience went smoothly. The system allowed her to schedule bi-weekly appointments and the short wait times surprised her. “I was pretty surprised because they got back to me pretty quickly,” Ke said. “They had more availability than I thought they would, at least from what I’ve heard in the past from talking to other students.” Some students attempting to schedule consultations, especially later in the semester, have had a different experience — finding no immediate availability and wait times longer than a month. LSA freshman Ava Ben- David sought out CAPS this fall due to the constantly changing nature of the semester, which included a stay-in-place order and the closure of residence halls for the winter term. “I sought some counseling, just someone to talk to, because this semester has been so crazy and there’s been a lot of changes,” Ben- David said. Facing another remote semester, CAPS hires additional counselors University’s Counseling and Psychological Services works to increase resources The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com News 2 — Wednesday, December 9, 2020 DESIGN BY SAMUEL TURNERr ADVERTISING WMG-contact@umich.edu HANNAH MACKAY & JARED DOUGALL Daily Staff Reporters See CAPS, Page 3 ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily The Michigan Daily’s seniors, class of 2020, bid farewell outside 420 Maynard.