The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is publishing weekly on Wednesdays for the 
Winter 2021 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.

BRITTANY BOWMAN
Managing Editor babowm@michigandaily.com

BARBARA COLLINS and LIAT WEINSTEIN 
Managing News Editors news@michigandaily.com

Senior News Editors: Emma Ruberg, Hannah Mackay, Calder Lewis, Jasmin 
Lee, Francesca Duong, Kristina Zheng
Investigative Editor: Sammy Sussman
FOIA Manager: Ayse Eldes

LIZ COOK and JOEL WEINER
Editorial Page Editors tothedaily@michigandaily.com
Senior Opinion Editors: Zack Blumberg, Andrew Gerace, Min Soo Kim, Mary 
Rolfes, Elayna Swift

ELISE GODFRYD and ZOE PHILLIPS
Managing Arts Editors 
 arts@michigandaily.com

ALLISON ENGKVIST and MADDIE HINKLEY
Managing Photo Editors photo@michigandaily.com

ANDIE HOROWITZ
Managing Statement Editor statement@michigandaily.com
Deputy Editors: Isabelle Hasslund, Marisa Wright

MADISON GAGNE and OLIVIA BRADISH
Managing Copy Editors copydesk@michigandaily.com

Senior Copy Editors: Caroline Atkinson, Anjali Chiravuri, Ethan Patrick, Kelsey 
Burke, Emily Wilson, Vanita Seed, Sophie Kephart, Rena McRoy

PARTH DHYANI and NAITIAN ZHOU
Managing Online Editors 
 webteam@michigandaily.com

IULIA DOBRIN and ANNIKA WANG
Managing Video Editors video@michigandaily.com

Senior Michigan in Color Editors: Noor Moughni, Maya Kadouh, Eliya Imtiaz, 
Jessica Kwon, Lola Yang

Senior Sports Editors: Rian Ratnavale, Drew Cox, Lily Friedman, Jack Kingsley

Senior Video Editors: Margaret Rudnick, Jordan Shefman

Senior Social Media Editors: Kirti Aplash, Natalie Knight, Ria Dubey, Ryan 
Postman, Evan DeLorenzo, Atticus Raasch, Bella Morreale

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

TARA MOORE
Business Manager

tmooree@michigandaily.com

CLAIRE HAO

Editor in Chief

cmhao@michigandaily.com

PHOTOGRAPHY SECTION

photo@michigandaily.com

NEWSROOM
734-418-4115 opt.3

CORRECTIONS

corrections@michigandaily.com

LANE KIZZIAH and KENT SCHWARTZ 
Managing Sports Editors sportseditors@michigandaily.com

Senior Arts Editors: Andrew Pluta, Grace Tucker, Kari Anderson, Katie 
Beekman, Sophia Yoon
Arts Beat Editors: Elizabeth Yoon, Peter Hummer, Mik Deitz, Sabriya Imami, 
Kaitlyn Fox, Anya Soller

AYA SALIM and SAMUEL TURNER
Managing Design Editors 
 design@michigandaily.com

Senior Design Editors: Shannon Stocking, Adam Bressler

ANAMIKA KANNAN and GABRIJELA SKOKO
Michigan in Color Editors michiganincolor@michigandaily.com

HALEY JOHNSON and ASHA LEWIS 
Managing Social Media Editors

Editorial Staff

Business Staff

Senior Photo Editors: Emma Mati, Miles Macklin, Becca Mahon, Julia 
Schachinger
Assistant Photo Editors: Maddie Fox, Luke Hales, Jeremy Weine, Gabby 
Ceritano, Sophia Afendoulis

RORI MILLER
Creative Director

EMILY OHL and GERALD SILL
Managing Podcast Editors

SCHUYLER JANZEN

Sales Manager

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
2 — Wednesday, January 20, 2021 

ADVERTISING

WMG-contact@umich.edu 

Students look to Winter 2021 with 
skepticism following Fall 2020 semester

The Fall 2020 semester 

— 
which 
included 
a 

Graduate 
Employees’ 

Organization 
strike 
and 

widespread 
concerns 

about 
COVID-19 
policies 

— tested the relationship 
between 
University 
of 

Michigan students and the 
administration. 
With 
the 

start of the Winter 2021 
semester around the corner, 
many students said they hope 
the University will improve 
from last semester and apply 
lessons learned from the fall 
to have a more successful 
winter.

The Winter 2021 semester 

marks the University’s most 
overwhelmingly 
virtual 

semester, after Winter 2020’s 
mid-semester shift at the 
onset of the pandemic and 
last 
semester’s 
attempted 

hybrid 
of 
in-person 
and 

majority virtual learning.

Business freshman John 

Cook said his first semester 
of primarily virtual classes 
and 
limited 
opportunities 

for meeting other students 
was marked by disappointing 
levels 
of 
engagement. 

At times, Cook said, last 
semester felt like “watching 
YouTube videos.”

“One of the most important 

aspects 
of 
college 
— 

especially 
something 
that 

Michigan 
preaches 
— 
is 

(that) you can find people 
that you can interact with 
and engage with, and you 
can find people that push you 
to think harder,” Cook said. 
“But when it came down to 
classes, student engagement 
was zero.”

COVID-19 response

With the constant threat 

of COVID-19 looming over 
campus, University President 
Mark 
Schlissel 
sent 
out 

COVID-19 briefings to the 
University community each 
week. Some students said 
they were frustrated with 
the amount of jargon that the 
important information was 
sometimes wrapped up in, 
making it difficult to actually 
understand what was going 
on.

LSA senior Jordyn Houle 

said something a bit briefer 
than the emails that are 
occasionally sent out would 
help more people understand 
what is really going on.

“I think a lot of it is just a 

lot of rhetoric,” Houle said. 
“These things don’t get to the 
root of what the University’s 
response at any given time 
is. I think there is a lot of 
obfuscating around what’s 
going on (in the current 
briefings).”

The 
University’s 
testing 

policy last semester also fell 
under heavy scrutiny. While 

many 
other 
institutions 

implemented 
plans 
where 

students 
were 
randomly 

tested, the University’s plan 
did not mandate testing for 
all students. This semester, 
the administration changed 
course, electing to test all 
on-campus students weekly. 
Students like LSA sophomore 
Madelin Chau were surprised 
by the red tape covering 
University ordained testing 
in the fall.

“My biggest issue is how 

difficult it was to find out 
(how to be tested),” Chau 
said. 
“They 
should 
have 

made that more accessible to 
everyone.”

For the winter semester, 

the University has expanded 
testing access to all students, 
faculty and staff who live 
or work on campus. Weekly 
testing 
is 
required 
for 

undergraduate students who 
come to campus and will be 
enforced with checks of the 
newly updated ResponsiBLUE 
app upon entering University 
facilities. 
Administration 

also 
encourages 
students 

who live off campus to be 
tested regularly, particularly 
those living in Greek or co-op 
housing.

Students criticized the fact 

that some groups, including 
fraternities and sororities, 
continued to host parties 
during the fall semester. Chau 
said she would like to see the 
administration take further 
action to stop partying.

“You just hear about so 

many parties that continue to 
go on, you see it on Snapchat 
and things like that, so you 
know it’s happening,” Chau 
said. “I do think that they 
need to do something about 
that, focus more on the Greek 
Life parties.”

Throughout 
an 

unprecedented 
semester, 

criticism 
of 
the 

administration 
persisted, 

and Houle said she found 
their actions when it came 
to COVID-19 to be somewhat 
soft. Similar to Chau, Houle 
expects the administration 
to be much more proactive 
about enforcement this time 
around. 

“I think that there was a lot 

of wishful thinking that this 
was going to go away without 
taking much action,” said 
Houle.

The University announced 

in 
November 
a 
stricter, 

“no-tolerance” 
approach 

to 
COVID-19 
policy 

enforcement for the winter 
semester. University Housing 
residents 
will 
be 
placed 

on 
housing 
probation 
-- 

potentially one step from 
contract termination -- after 
their first violation. 

Tuition increase

Before the start of the fall 

semester, the majority of 
regents voted to approve a 
1.9% tuition increase, after 

initially failing to pass the 
proposed budget. Students 
criticized this decision amid 
the 
economic 
downturn 

created by the pandemic. 
LSA senior Amytess Girgis, 
a recently named Rhodes 
Scholar and student activist 
involved in the One University 
Campaign, said the University 
has a “deep obligation” to put 
its money where its mouth is, 
considering its reputation as 
a top public university.

“What COVID has really 

brought out in this university 
is just a continued lack of 
ability or desire to allocate its 
funds appropriately, whether 
it be to protect students and 
faculty during a pandemic, 
or whether it be to provide 
the necessary financial aid to 
help people get through these 
times and any other time,” 
Girgis said.

Echoing 
Girgis, 
other 

students 
also 
said 
they 

were 
frustrated 
by 
the 

juxtaposition 
between 
the 

tuition 
increase 
and 
the 

perceived decrease in the 
quality of education due to 
remote classes.

“I think the tuition increase 

last semester, in spite of not 
receiving the same quality of 
education that students here 
expect to receive, was pretty 
disappointing,” Houle said. 
“Especially considering the 
$10 billion endowment that 
they have.”

Use of University buildings 

for shelter

With 
the 
majority 
of 

University Housing contracts 
terminated for the winter 
semester, 
community 

members 
are 
now 
asking 

the administration what, if 
anything, will be done with 
empty buildings on campus. 
Ann 
Arbor 
City 
Council 

has raised the possibility of 
using empty residence halls 
to shelter the city’s homeless 
population.

Although they may have a 

difficult time imagining the 
University opening its doors, 
students that spoke to The 
Daily were very open to the 
idea.

“I don’t necessarily expect 

that the University will end 
up (housing the homeless 
population),” 
said 
Houle. 

“But in an ideal world, I think 
that they should definitely 
try to.”

Girgis, who also voiced 

support for the repurposing 
of dorms, stressed the effect 
that the University has in 
raising the cost of living in 
Ann Arbor.

“The 
university 
has 
a 

direct hand in the rates of 
homelessness in Ann Arbor 
and 
Washtenaw 
County,” 

Girgis said. “And so not only 
is it just simply the right 
thing to do. The university 
actually has a responsibility, 
to at least in some small way, 
make up for the fact that it is 

actively choosing not to make 
housing more affordable in 
Washtenaw 
County. 
And 

beyond that it’s also just the 
best course to undertake as 
far as public health goes.”

Cook 
said 
that, 
as 
a 

public university that relies 
partially on public funds, 
the University has an ethical 
responsibility to serve the 
surrounding community.

“I think it’s their duty to 

aid the homeless population 
in Ann Arbor,” Cook said. 
“So, if they have those unused 
buildings, I think that they 
should be utilized.”

University 
spokesperson 

Rick Fitzgerald told The Daily 
in 
a 
December 
interview 

that the University has been 
in touch with Washtenaw 
County officials to try to 
understand the community’s 
needs and see if there’s a way 
it could be helpful. 

Graduate Employees’ 
Organization strike

A 
week 
into 
the 
fall 

semester, 
the 
Graduate 

Employees’ 
Organization 

launched a historic strike in 
protest of the University’s 
reopening plans. Girgis said 
the 
strike 
represented 
a 

larger underlying issue with 
a lack of community input 
into University decisions. She 
pointed to the controversy 
surrounding 
Regent 
Ron 

Weiser 
(R) 
as 
another 

example of this issue of 
accountability going into the 
winter semester.

“The 
fundamental 

problem with the University 
administration, at least for 
the time that I have been 
here, is that they refuse 
to acknowledge the ways 
in 
which 
the 
University 

community can and should be 
informing their decisions,” 
Girgis said. 

Girgis, who is also an 

activist with the Lecturers’ 
Employee 
Organization, 

emphasized that LEO will be 
in contract negotiations with 
the University this semester. 
According to Girgis, LEO is 
advocating for demands GEO 
has also campaigned for in 
the past, such as higher wages 
for University employees and 
increased childcare support. 
Last Friday, LEO held a 
bargaining kickoff rally in 
anticipation of the months of 
negotiations ahead.

“LEO 
is 
bargaining 

starting 
next 
week 
and 

(making) a lot of demands 
that 
are 
important, 
not 

only for them, but for the 
University 
community 
as 

a whole,” Girgis said. “The 
administration would do well 
to listen.”

Daily 
Staff 
Reporters 

Christian Juliano and Julianna 
Morano can be reached at 
julianoc@umich.edu 
and 

jucomora@umich.edu.

CHRISTIAN JULIANO & 

JULIANNA MORANO

Daily Staff Reporters

MARIA DECKMANN/Daily

Students are skeptical about the upcoming winter semester.

As new year begins, community members talk more robust COVID-19 response, tuition equity 

ADMINISTRATION

JACK GRIEVE
Digital Managing Editor jgrieve@michigandaily.com

ALEX HARRING and SARAH SZALAI 
Co-Chairs of Access & Inclusion

Senior Podcast Editors: Doug McClure, Max Rosenzweig, Avin Katyal

