The University of Michigan’s
Senate Assembly met virtually
Monday afternoon to provide an
update on the work of the Faculty
COVID-19 Council, specifically
discussing
how
to
improve
messaging from administration
to students. Senate Assembly
also heard from Kevin Hegarty,
the executive vice president
and chief financial officer, who
will be retiring at the end of
the semester, and voted for the
Senate Advisory Committee on
University Affairs’ nominating
committee.
Luke Hyde, a professor of
psychology and member of the
Faculty
COVID-19
Council,
said
conversations
between
members of the council and
administration
revealed
that
members
from
across
the
University community should be
offering their input on COVID-
related changes. The COVID-19
Faculty Council was established
in October to serve as a faculty
voice in administrative decisions
after the Faculty Senate passed
a vote of no confidence in U-M
President
Mark
Schlissel’s
leadership in September.
“The faculty COVID Council
has met five times bi-weekly on
Friday mornings,” Hyde said.
“The
President
and
Provost
have expressed that they have
found it helpful for them to get
feedback from sort of average or
non-COVID medical and public
health-related faculty.”
Hyde assured faculty that
Schlissel and Provost Susan
Collins have been addressing
all issues and ideas brought
forth by Senate members. Hyde
said Schlissel and Collins have
been responsive to concerns,
though
he
admitted
that
faculty members have differing
views on how issues should be
addressed.
“Some of the major topics that
we’ve addressed so far have been
messaging and communication
both about COVID broadly but
also vaccine rollout, and also
sort of messages to students,”
Hyde said.
Hyde said he was disheartened
to hear that the University has
the capacity to vaccinate more
than 25,000 students a week but
is not receiving enough vaccines
from the state to do so.
“I will be honest, probably
the hardest thing that I had in
the last meeting was learning
that even if things go really well,
they may not be vaccinating
undergrads until the fall,” Hyde
said. “And for whatever it’s
worth, this is not U-M’s fault.”
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
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All University of Michigan
athletics will be paused for
two
weeks
starting
Sunday,
Jan. 24 in accordance with a
recommendation from the state
health department according to
messages obtained by The Daily
and confirmed by a source close
to the athletic department. The
order, which halts all athletic
activity
including
practice,
is limited exclusively to U-M
athletics after a recent influx
of positive cases within several
Michigan teams.
According
to
a
statement
released
by
the
athletic
department Saturday night, the
Wolverines have been following
Big Ten testing and reporting
protocals,
but
the
Michigan
Department
of
Health
and
Human Services is taking a more
stringent approach to the novel
COVID-19 B.1.1.7 variant.
A source told The Daily that
there were five confirmed cases
of the new variant, with 15 more
presumed positives throughout
the athletic department. The
novel strain was first introduced
to Michigan at the beginning of
the semester by a U-M athlete
traveling
from
the
United
Kingdom. All members of the
athletic department are expected
to quarantine for 14 days.
“Canceling
competitions
is
never something we want to do,
but with so many unknowns
about this variant of COVID-19,
we must do everything we can
to minimize the spread among
student-athletes, coaches, staff,
and to the student-athletes at
other
schools,”
said
athletic
director Warde Manuel in the
statement
released
Saturday
night.
An
MDHHS
spokeswoman
confirmed that five cases of the
variant were found on Michigan
athletic teams. An MDHHS
memo provided to The Daily laid
out the state’s recommendations
for the next two weeks. Those
include:
-
Immediate
14-day
quarantine for all Michigan
athletes, household members
and close contacts starting from
Jan. 23
- A review of all positive test
results in the past two weeks
- Immediate PCR testing of
all team members, including
genetic
sequencing
of
any
positive tests
- Thrice-weekly PCR testing
during quarantine
- The assumption that all
cases linked to the outbreak
are variant infections, pending
confirmation
The
memo
also
provides
campus-wide recommendations,
saying that if the variant is
detected in an organization,
there should be twice-a-week
PCR testing for all members
of that organization. It also
recommends ramping up testing
for the entire community, and
a 10-day quarantine for any
students returning to campus
from out of state or abroad.
This past week 22 student-
athletes
tested
positive
for
COVID-19 per release, 13 more
than the week prior. No coaches
or staff tested positive.
a Bulldog tested positive the
day after the game, leading to
two missed games.
The
Michigan
Daily
sat
down
with
University
of
Michigan
President
Mark
Schlissel to discuss COVID-19
vaccinations, the University’s
climate goals, racial equity on
campus and the Jan. 6 events at
the U.S. Capitol. This interview
has been edited and condensed
for clarity.
Mark Schlissel: First of
all, welcome back and happy
New Year. The inauguration’s
tomorrow, and I know there’s
some anxiety among many,
or at least some people —
students or faculty and staff
— because of all the violence
that occurred in D.C. and
threats of violence in the
statehouse, so I just wanted
to reassure you and students
that our public safety folks
have been in communications
with all the other security
partners
around
the
state
and around the country, and
we’ve increased staffing and
set up contingencies. We don’t
expect problems on campus,
but we just encourage the
community if they’re anxious
to talk about it. Talk about it
with one another and try to
stay balanced as we watch this
change in the administration.
The Michigan Daily: What
is the biggest challenge facing
the University of Michigan in
2021?
MS: The biggest challenge
remains the pandemic, and
it’s the challenge of, how do
we continue to deliver on
the mission of the University
while keeping people healthy
and safe, and having a good
Michigan experience to the
extent
possible
given
the
limitations of the disease, the
virus.
TMD: So on that note,
some health professionals are
raising concerns over the more
contagious coronavirus strain
from the United Kingdom,
which
was
discovered
in
Washtenaw County Saturday.
What does this development
mean for the University?
MS: I think it is of concern.
If there’s any good news so far,
there’s no indication that it
produces a more severe disease,
so it’s not more dangerous for
your health. The other bit of
good news is it still remains
susceptible to the vaccine.
But the report of cases
in Washtenaw County isn’t
surprising. I think all of us
have to presume that if it’s in
Washtenaw County, it’ll be in
our campus community. It’s
hard to imagine it wouldn’t
since we have so many people.
We’re really one community,
so I think we have to treat one
another and presume as if the
strain’s around.
And so far as best we
know, the methods to prevent
transmission are the same —
social distancing,
Faculty Senate
talks messaging
‘U’ President Mark Schlissel:
‘Unlikely’ U-M will vaccinate
most students this semester
Spread of B.1.1.7 variant cases prompts state health dept. recommendation
In this interview, The Daily asks about vaccinations, the
university’s climate goals, racial equity on campus & Jan. 6 riot
U-M Athletics on two-week pause
See SCHLISSEL, Page 2
See COVID, Page 3
MADDIE FOX/Daily
Updates on COVID-19 council include
how to best communicate to students
CALDER LEWIS,
JULIANNA MORANO &
CHRISTIAN JULIANO
Daily Staff Reporters
Dingell gives annual State
of the District address
MARTINA ZACKER
Daily Staff Reporter
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
ETHAN SEARS
Daily Sports Writer
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
U.S. Rep. tackles bipartisanship, climate change & more
GABRIEL BOUDAGH
Daily Staff Reporter
U.S.
Rep.
Debbie
Dingell,
D-Mich.,
gave
her
annual
State of the District address
Monday morning to an audience
of
about
700
people
via
livestream. The event, hosted
by the Southern Wayne County
Regional Chamber, updated the
community on Dingell’s recent
work.
To start off her annual address
Dingell discussed the pandemic’s
impact on the daily life of her
constituents.
“The most important thing
for us right now is to stay safe,”
Dingell said. “We are using
technology to touch each other,
stay close and talk about the
issues we care about. There’s
nothing normal about the year
that we’ve been in. Because of all
the chaos and the uncertainty,
traditions are something that we
actually hold on to tighter to give
us a sense of normalcy and hope.”
Dingell also discussed the
riot at the Capitol Building that
occurred earlier this month and
her experience during the attack.
Dingell, who is a member of the
U.S. House of Representatives
Problem
Solvers
Caucus,
a
bipartisan group with equal
numbers
of
Democratic
and
Republican lawmakers, said the
attempted insurrection on Jan. 6
strengthened her commitment to
fighting for democracy.
“I didn’t envision the depths
of
division
that
we
would
experience over these last few
weeks,” Dingell said. “Never
in a million years did I think I
would find myself sheltering in
an undisclosed location in the
United States Capitol, while
my fellow citizens attacked a
sacred building that gives young
democracies around the world
hope. … All of us have to be
engaged for democracy to work.
This needs to be a wake-up call
for everybody.”
During her address, Dingell
discussed her early commitment
to combating the spread of the
coronavirus.
“Confronting and combatting
COVID has been my priority for
the last year,” Dingell said. “I
was one of the first members of
Congress that wrote to anybody
about it. I wrote to the CDC and
said, ‘Why are we screening at
some airports and not ones like
Detroit?’”
In
early
January,
Dingell
requested that the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention
provide an update on the steps
they were taking to ensure all
travelers coming from China —
the early epicenter of the virus
— were safe from COVID-19.
The CDC expanded additional
screening facilities at some major
U.S. airports but some, including
the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne
County Airport, still had direct
flights to areas where COVID-
19 cases were being reported.
COVID-19 screenings were first
introduced at DTW on Jan. 28,
2020.
Dingell also discussed the
bills she plans to introduce in
Congress this year, including
legislation to help strengthen
personal protective equipment
supplies in hospitals and to
ensure underserved communities
are provided with clean water.
“We’re introducing legislation
to
strengthen
the
Strategic
National Stockpile, but we’re
going to make sure we don’t get
stuck flat-footed the way that we
did last time where we didn’t have
PPE equipment for our frontline
workers,” Dingell said. “We’ve
got to increase access to home &
community-based care. I will be
introducing legislation, this week,
that will prohibit water shutoffs
nationwide and provide financial
assistance
for
low-income
households to pay for drinking
water.”
Dingell, who is on the House
Committee
on
Energy
and
Commerce said she plans to
protect jobs at auto plants while
introducing new technologies to
this sector.
“Last year, I talked about
the undeniable shift towards
electric vehicles that is gaining
momentum
and
self-driving
vehicles,” Dingell said. “Even
with a pandemic that upended
our daily lives, this shift is
continuing … I want to make
sure that we’re bringing in newer
technology and newer products
to the plants that we have down
here and that people think that
our communities are a good place
to live.”
Dingell said she plans to work
with the Biden Administration to
remove PFAS and other chemicals
from local waters, as well as fix
local infrastructure and introduce
a renewable energy plan. After
her address, Dingell answered
questions about student debt and
renewable energy incentives.
The first audience question
touched on the student debt crisis,
to which Dingell replied that it
is important to find a balanced
solution.
“I think some of them are
going to be viable because I think
our students are really hurting,”
Dingell said. “The question is
what’s the right formula … We
have to figure out how to lower the
cost of education to young people
and make it more affordable to
everybody on an equal playing
field.”
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
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