The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, March 3, 2021 — 3

Whitmer to ease restrictions on 
indoor dining, residential care
Relaxed regulations come after six straight weeks of declining cases in the state

The state of Michigan will 

ease 
restrictions 
on 
indoor 

dining 
capacity, 
outdoor 

activities and residential care 
facilities beginning Friday, Gov. 
Gretchen Whitmer announced 
at a news conference Tuesday. 

Starting Friday, restaurants 

and bars will be allowed to 
operate at 50% capacity up to 
100 people, an increase from 
25% over the previous six 
weeks. Retail and other indoor 
entertainment 
venues 
will 

also open up to 50% capacity. 
Gatherings at residences can 
now hold 15 people from up 
to three different households 
indoors, with up to 50 people 
outdoors. 

New 
guidelines 
on 
non-

residential gatherings expand 
capacity for events like public 
meetings, with up to 25 people 
now permitted indoors and 300 
allowed outdoors.

Indoor stadiums can hold 

375 patrons if seating capacity 
is under 10,000 and 750 if 
capacity is over 10,000. Outdoor 
entertainment venues can host 

up to 1,000 people. 

However, 
Washtenaw 

County’s limits of ten people 
for indoor gatherings and 25 
people for outdoor gatherings 
remain in effect, according to 
the Washtenaw County Health 
Department website.

“As we continue our vaccine 

rollout and make steady progress 
against the virus, we are taking 
additional 
incremental 
steps 

to re-engage to ensure we are 
protecting our families and 
frontline workers and saving 
lives,” 
Whitmer 
said 
in 
a 

Tuesday press release from the 
Michigan Department of Health 
and Human Services. 

According 
to 
Tuesday’s 

press release, COVID-19 cases 
in Michigan declined for six 
straight weeks and are now at 
levels similar to those in early 
October, before the nationwide 
winter spike. Cases in the state 
are now plateauing at a rate of 
around 91 cases per million, with 
a positivity rate of 3.7%. 

The press release also said 

more than two million doses 
of the COVID-19 vaccine have 
been administered in the state. 
MDHHS 
also 
acknowledges 

that more contagious variants 
like the B.1.1.7 variant spreading 

throughout the state could make 
the pandemic more difficult to 
control. 

“We continue to monitor 

the data closely, and based on 
current trends we are taking 
another step toward normalcy,” 
MDHHS 
Director 
Elizabeth 

Hertel wrote in the press release. 
“We 
urge 
Michiganders 
to 

continue doing what works and 
wearing a mask, washing their 
hands and avoiding crowds.”

Restrictions on nursing home 

visitations and activities will 
also ease, as all residents have 
been offered a first dose of 
COVID-19 vaccines and most 
have had a second dose. The new 
Residential Care Facilities Order 
goes into effect immediately and 
encourages communal dining, 
group activities for residents and 
indoor and outdoor visitation in 
all counties. 

Other restrictions such as the 

mask mandate and the pause on 
activities with close physical 
contact without masks continue, 
as well as the directive for 
people to work from home if they 
are able to.

Whitmer 
first 
announced 

the state’s epidemic order in 
November as rising COVID-19 
cases across the state threatened 

to overwhelm hospital capacity. 
The order was initially scheduled 
to last three weeks, but was 
extended nearly three months 
as the situation worsened across 
the country. 

These restrictions began to be 

lifted in January, when Whitmer 
announced that indoor dining 
would be allowed to resume at 
limited capacity on Feb. 1 and 
some extracurricular activities 
for K-12 students would be 
allowed. 

Whitmer’s 
updated 
order 

reflects a larger pattern of state 
governors easing restrictions that 
were in place throughout much 
of the winter, when COVID-
19 
infection 
rates 
peaked. 

Massachusetts 
Gov. 
Charlie 

Baker announced last Thursday 
that the state would move into its 
next reopening phase, with limits 
on indoor dining to be relaxed 
in the coming weeks. Similarly, 
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam 
announced that Virginia would 
ease 
restrictions 
beginning 

Monday.

Managing News Editor Liat 

Weinstein can be reached at 
weinsl@umich.edu. Daily News 
Editor Calder Lewis can be 
reached at calderll@umich.edu.

CALDER LEWIS & 
LIAT WEINSTEIN

Daily News Editors

GOVERNMENT

Librarians, archivists and curators 

unionize, seek to join LEO

Vote to add group to lecturers’ union opened Thursday, will last until March 4

ACADEMICS

Librarians, 
archivists 
and 

curators 
(LACs) 
across 
the 

University of Michigan’s three 
campuses announced on Twitter 
Feb. 22 that they are campaigning 
to join the Lecturers’ Employee 
Organization, 
the 
University’s 

union of non-tenure track faculty. 
Voting on the resolution to 
add LACs to the union opened 
Thursday and will last until 
March 4, according to a statement 
released by LEO.

LEO strives to “increase the 

economic, 
professional, 
social 

and political power of non-tenure 
track faculty” at the University in 
order to better educate students, 
fight for equity across all three 
campuses and promote universal 
access to high-quality public 
education, according to their 
constitution. 

Meredith Kahn, librarian for 

gender and sexuality studies on 
the Ann Arbor campus, helped 
form the organizing committee 
for LACs and told The Daily 
LACs play an important role 
in sustaining the universities’ 
research operations.

“Even though we work in 

different parts of the university, 
and we work with different 
collections, I think what unites 
us is that you really cannot have 
a world-class research university 
without 
world-class 
libraries, 

archives, 
museums, 
galleries, 

gardens, all of those things,” 
Kahn said. “You cannot have 
those things without the labor 
of 
librarians, 
archivists 
and 

curators.”

Lecturers voted to unionize 

in 2004 to secure their rights 

to bargain with the University 
on issues related to health care, 
salaries and job security, among 
other 
provisions. 
LACs 
and 

lecturers are both considered 
non-tenure track faculty, with 
over 10% of LACs having a part-
time appointment as a lecturer 
during their career.

In June, the University’s Board 

of Regents passed a resolution 
recognizing the formal right of 
employees to bargain collectively, 
essentially clarifying how the 
University should interact with 
unions. In the past, extensive 
negotiations between unions and 
University administrators have 
become tense and drawn-out, 
sometimes leading to a stalemate 
between the two groups.

Kahn said the process of 

joining LEO began soon after this 

resolution was passed. 

“(The resolution) signaled to 

us (LACs) that it was maybe a 
little bit safer to pursue forming a 
union,” Kahn said.

To begin, a small group of LACs 

reached out to the American 
Federation 
of 
Teachers 
of 

Michigan to discuss unionizing 
in June. From there, the LACs 
were put in touch with LEO. They 
then spent the summer reaching 
out to LACs from across the three 
campuses to better understand 
the similarities between LACs 
and other non-tenured faculty, 
specifically lecturers.

“What we want is better 

working 
conditions, 
better 

salaries, more parity between the 
three campuses,” Kahn said. “We 
want administration to address 
diversity, equity and inclusion 

more seriously. There’s actually 
quite a bit that we share.” 

LEO President Ian Robinson, 

lecturer 
in 
the 
sociology 

department and in the Residential 
College, told The Daily there was 
a lot of common ground between 
LACs and lecturers and welcomed 
the diversity that LACs would 
bring to the union.

“We have gotten used — at the 

get-go — to being a union that 
values, accommodates and takes 
advantage of diversity rather than 
seeing it as a problem,” Robinson 
said. “The advantages of having 
people with new skills that our 
members don’t have … is very 
compelling for us at the leadership 
level.” 

BROOKE VAN HORNE

Daily Staff Reporter

ISAAC MANGOLD/Daily

Librarians, archivists and curators campaign to join the Lecturers’ Employee Organization Monday afternoon.

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

CAMPUS LIFE
Students question 
effectiveness of one-
day “well-being break”

University 
of 
Michigan 

students had their first “well-
being” break — one of two days 
off from class in place of the 
traditional week-long spring 
break — Feb. 24. 

While the day was meant to 

promote student mental health 
without allowing enough time 
for travel, many students told 
The Michigan Daily that the 
one day break did not offer 
them time to engage in wellness 
activities. 
Instead, 
many 

students said they spent the 
time catching up on additional 
homework assignments during 
one of their most stressful 
semesters yet.

In December, the Board of 

Regents approved two one-
day, 
mid-week 
“well-being 

breaks” during the Winter 2021 
semester in hopes of allowing 
students to step away from class 
responsibilities for a day. The 
decision to cancel classes for 
the two mid-week breaks came 
after the University canceled 
Spring Break in an effort to 
mitigate the spread of COVID-
19.

Music, 
Theatre 
& 
Dance 

sophomore 
Ainsley 
Grace 

transferred to the University 
this year and said she hasn’t 
yet stepped foot on campus. In 
an interview with The Daily, 
Grace 
said 
this 
semester’s 

virtual experience has been 
especially isolating, making her 
feel as if she hasn’t had time for 
anything besides schoolwork.

Grace said when one of her 

professors 
assigned 
double 

the typical amount of reading 
and suggested the class could 
complete it on the well-being 
day, it was yet another blow in 
what was already a uniquely 
challenging semester.

“I don’t really think it’s 

enough — I think that it’s hard 
to not have a spring break at 
all,” Grace said. “I just had to 
do homework … I did not take a 
day off.”

In an email to The Daily, 

University spokesperson Rick 
Fitzgerald said the purpose 
of the well-being breaks is to 
provide an opportunity for 
students to step away from the 
online learning environment 
for a day.

“The well-being breaks were 

designed so students would 
have opportunities to spend 
time away from their typical 
spaces and screens as well as 
virtual breaks to meet students’ 
varying needs, while aligning 
with 
public 
health 
safety 

requirements,” 
Fitzgerald 

wrote.

Like 
Grace, 
Engineering 

freshman Satvik Nagpal said he 
has also spent the school year 
studying from home, where he 
said it is difficult to motivate 
himself 
to 
do 
schoolwork 

without social interaction on 
campus.

“Usually work and fun are 

separated, but now it feels 
like it’s almost a blur because 
all of your work is done at 
home,” Nagpal said. “(Remote 
learning) kind of just blends in 
and feels like every day is the 
same.”

Nagpal also said some of his 

friends had assignments due on 
the well-being day, and he spent 
the day working on an EECS 
281 project and studying for a 
quiz for a different class the 
following day.

“It just seems like (professors 

are) 
working 
around 
the 

wellness 
day 
instead 
of 

changing their plans to give us 
more of a day off, instead of just 
a study day or a catch-up day,” 
Nagpal said.

Fitzgerald also wrote that 

well-being days should be an 
opportunity for students and 
instructors to take time off 
from normal school activities.

“While these are not vacation 

days and the university is open, 
academic activity is intended 
to pause to enable students and 
instructors some time to use 
as they find most appropriate,” 

Fitzgerald wrote.

Nagpal added he feels two 

days off during a 13-week 
semester 
is 
insufficient 
in 

supporting 
students’ 
mental 

health and that he would like to 
see students receive more time 
off. 

Engineering 
sophomore 

Zachary Goldston said even 
though 
he 
appreciated 
the 

University’s attempt to provide 
safe time off for students, it was 
not enough time to fully relax.

“I appreciate what initiative 

Michigan is trying to take, 
considering 
they 
removed 

holidays, long weekends and 
spring break from us in order 
to prevent the spread of COVID 
during the winter semester,” 
Goldston 
said. 
“For 
some 

people, this has been more of a 
catch-up day or even a workday 
with some teachers assigning 
readings, even exams or a lot 
of work, since kids are missing 
class today, which personally, 
I think goes against what the 
University was planning to do.”

Goldston said he spent part 

of his well-being day golfing, 
though he acknowledged that 
other students he knew had 
more stressful days. 

“We wanted a day where 

we could, instead of focusing 
on Zoom University, instead 
of focusing on the stressors in 
our lives, take a second just to 
chill, take a deep breath and 
have some time for us to think 
instead of constantly rushing 
around from point to point 
worrying about assignments 
and activities,” Goldston said.

Public Health junior Bushra 

Hassan said she spent her 
well-being day catching up 
on lectures and studying for 
an exam the following day. In 
an interview with The Daily, 
Hassan said she feels virtual 
classes have created additional 
stressors for students.

“Staring at a screen for 

six continuous hours is very 
draining,” Hassan said. “It’s like 
you have to be actively engaged 
the whole time, especially if you 
have your camera on, which is 
very exhausting.”

On Feb. 22, Hassan said 

one of her professors assigned 
two additional lectures with 
an expectation they would be 
completed over the next two 
days, one of which coincided 
with the break. Hassan said she 
reached out to the professor 
to express concerns about the 
assignment but did not receive 
a response. The following day, 
Hassan said her professor told 
the class to watch the lectures 
at two-times speed.

“I 
didn’t 
know 
how 
to 

respond to him, because this is 
a wellness day, and I asked him, 
what does it mean to him. He 
just didn’t answer me,” Hassan 
said.

The Daily reviewed Hassan’s 

email to her professor and 
confirmed its contents, but 
was unable to confirm the 
professor’s statement in the 
class.

Goldston said this semester 

has been a trying experience 
for students and that he hopes 
there are more opportunities to 
relax in the future.

“In reality, I just want one 

day for us to forget that we’re 
in this sort of almost dystopian, 
nightmarish time and just kind 
of get to do something we want 
to do,” Goldston said.

Daily Staff Reporter Dominick 

Sokotoff can be reached at 
sokotoff@umich.edu. 

DOMINICK SOKOTOFF

Daily Staff Reporter

“In reality, I just 

want one day 
for us to forget 
that we’re in this 

sort of almost 

dystopian, 
nightmarish 

time”

With spring break canceled, many 
struggle with lack of time off from class

ASHA LEWIS/Daily

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced new COVID-19 restrictions at a press conference Tuesday, to take effect Friday.

