The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
2 — Wednesday, September 15, 2021 

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@umich.edu

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

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

ELIZABETH COOK and JOEL WEINER
Editorial Page Editors tothedaily@michigandaily.com
Senior Opinion Editors: Julian Barnard, Brandon Cowit, Shubhum Giroti, Jessie 
Mitchell, Evan Stern

ELISE GODFRYD and ELIZABETH YOON
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: Samantha Cole, Leo Krinsky

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: Drew Cox, Lily Friedman, Jack Kingsley, Brendan Roose, 
Daniel Dash, Jared Greenspan, Jacob Cohen

Senior Video Editors: Margaret Rudnick, Jordan Shefman

Senior Social Media Editors: Kirti Aplash, Natalie Knight, Cristina Costin, 
Ryan Postman, Evan DeLorenzo, Sarah Kent, 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

tipline@michigandaily.com

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

tothedaily@michigandaily.com

EDITORIAL PAGE

opinion@michigandaily.com

TARA MOORE
Business Manager

tmooree@umich.edu

CLAIRE HAO

Editor in Chief

cmhao@umich.edu

PHOTOGRAPHY SECTION

photo@michigandaily.com

NEWSROOM

news@michigandaily.com

CORRECTIONS

corrections@michigandaily.com

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

Senior Arts Editors: Kari Anderson, Drew Gadbois, Andrew Pluta, Grace 
Tucker, Sophia Yoon
Arts Beat Editors: Lilly Pearce, Peter Hummer, Mik Deitz, Sabriya Imami, 
Kaitlyn Fox, Anya Soller

SHANNON STOCKING and ALLISON YIH
Managing Design Editors 
 design@michigandaily.com

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

HALEY JOHNSON and ASHA LEWIS 
Managing Social Media Editors socialmedia@michigandaily.com

Editorial Staff

Business Staff

Senior Photo Editors: Emma Mati, Miles Macklin, Becca Mahon, Julia 
Schachinger
Assistant Photo Editors: Grace Beal, Tess Crowley, Kate Hua, Jarett Orr, 
Dominick Sokotoff

RORI MILLER
Creative Director

EMILY OHL and GERALD SILL
Managing Podcast Editors podeditors@michigandaily.com

SCHUYLER JANZEN

Sales Manager

ADVERTISING

WMG-contact@umich.edu 

JACK GRIEVE
Digital Managing Editor jgrieve@umich.edu

ALEX HARRING and SARAH SZALAI 
Co-Chairs of Access & Inclusion accessandinclusion@michigandaily.com

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

ACADEMICS
Students face another semester outside the 
classroom with virtual, outdoor classes
Concerns about the delta variant prompt instructors to change course formats 

Though 91% of University 

of Michigan courses are being 
taught in-person this semester, 
some students are still learning 
in 
alternative 
formats 
— 

including online or outdoors — 
due to concerns over teaching 
in small classrooms as the 
more contagious delta variant 
continues to spread.

LSA freshman Sam Gomez, 

who is taking an outdoors 
class this semester, was among 
those most looking forward to 
getting as normal of a college 
experience as possible in the 
age of COVID-19.

“I 
was 
very 
optimistic 

— when you searched for 
in-person classes, most classes 
would pop up,” Gomez said. “I 
was really excited that I’d be 

able to walk the campus and 

be able to experience it more or 
less in the way that a student 
would on a normal year.”

To 
Gomez’s 
surprise, 

“in-person” for English 223 did 
not mean learning in Mason 
Hall, the class’s location on the 
LSA course guide. After first 
meeting in the confined space 
of a classroom, lecturer Molly 
Lynch decided to move the 
English class outside for both 
creativity and safety reasons, 
she told The Daily.

“For the most part, people 

would like to be outside in 
the nice weather, especially 
in a creative writing class,” 
Lynch said. “But the COVID 
safety aspect of it was my main 
motivation, because I don’t 
know how well ventilated each 
classroom is.”

Over the past two weeks, 

Lynch has made use of spaces 
available throughout Central 
Campus, teaching her courses 
across from Hill Auditorium, 
outside the North University 
Building 
and 
even 
in 
the 

University Museum of Modern 
Art.

“There’s 
plenty 
of 

opportunity 
for 
outdoor 

classrooms,” Lynch said. “Our 
campus has a lot of spaces 
where that can be done and 
done in a way in which teachers 
just kind of use what appears 
to be available.”

Learning 
in 
these 

unconventional 
locations 

has 
helped 
Gomez 
grow 

accustomed to campus while 
tapping into his creative side 
— something that is much 
more difficult in a windowless 
Mason Hall classroom, he said.

“I feel like I’m a lot more 

in touch with things,” Gomez 
said. “I know that for some 
situations, being outside can 
make a classroom environment 
more difficult, but in a creative 
class such as this one, it feels 
like you’re in your element a bit 
more.”

The 
only 
downside, 

Gomez said, is the occasional 
interruption, whether it be 
the bell tower’s quarter-hour 
chime or a friend unknowingly 
disrupting the class.

Though 
Gomez 
and 
his 

classmates are tackling school 
in a brand-new setting, others 
have returned to the all-
too-familiar Zoom calls for 
hybrid and virtual classes this 
semester.

Despite 
having 
the 

option to teach in person, 
Anna Edmonds, lecturer of 
philosophy, opted for virtual 
lectures 
with 
in-person 

discussions 
due 
to 
space 

limitations on campus.

“Given that it seemed like 

a pretty high possibility that 
we would end up with a much 
worse lecture time in possibly 
not a very good space, I elected 
to stay online,” Edmonds said. 

Edmonds said the return 

to virtual instruction is not 
a setback but instead offers a 
variety of ways to keep students 
engaged 
during 
lectures. 

Edmonds said the chat function 
has been especially helpful 
for facilitating participation 
during lectures.

“I really love being able to 

glance over at the chat and 
see the kind of comments and 
questions people are asking 
there,” Edmonds said. “It’s a 
pretty low bar for entry into 
class participation … I already 
know that the person who’s 
written in it has something to 
say, so there’s no sort of danger 
of scary cold-calling.”

Students have so far enjoyed 

the freedom that comes with 
recorded lectures, Edmonds 
said.

“It seemed fairly plausible 

that 
having 
the 
recorded 

lectures to be able to go back 
and watch, as well as taking 
exams in a setting where you 
were by yourself and not elbow-
to-elbow in the auditorium, 
were helpful,” Edmonds said.

Edmonds 
and 
Lynch 

emphasized the importance 
of continuing to prioritize 
students’ mental health.

“I acknowledge the kind 

of 
awkwardness, 
difficulty 

and challenges that we may 
potentially be facing,” Lynch 
said. “I put a huge amount of 
emphasis in my teaching on 
student mental health — it’s 

very prominent in my syllabi, 
so students are aware of the 
services that are available to 
them.”

Engineering 
junior 

Anna 
Kilts 
said 
virtual 

classes definitely have their 
advantages when it comes to 
freedom and time management.

“It’s really nice to take my 

class wherever,” Kilts said. 
“I don’t actually have to go 
anywhere, so my Tuesdays are 
very relaxing.”

On other days when she has 

hybrid classes, Kilts said she 
loses this luxury of working 
wherever is convenient.

“The only difficulty with 

hybrid (classes) is scheduling,” 
Kilts 
said. 
“My 
discussion 

section is ten minutes after 
my lecture, so I have to do the 
online lecture somewhere on 
campus to get to my classroom 
time.”

Still, Kilts said she hopes 

students stay safe and follow 
the 
University 
COVID-19 

protocols set in place so that 
next semester is more similar 
to 
a 
pre-pandemic 
college 

experience.

“I just hope that, as a whole, 

the student body continues 
to be safe and smart with the 
decisions that they’re making,” 
Kilts said. “Obviously, being in 
person is really exciting, but 
we’re only going to be able to 
continue to have in-person 
classes 
and 
in-person 

opportunities as long as people 
are making smart decisions.”

Daily Staff Reporter Evan 

DeLorenzo can be reached at 
evandelo@umich.edu.

EVAN DELORENZO

Daily Staff Reporter

Associate Editor: Julia Maloney

MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily

Senior Ashley Lau competes in the Wolverine invitational Sept. 13, the first time since 2012 that this invitational has been held.

PHOTO

“I literally lost so much sleep 

those nights because I didn’t 
know if they were going to put 
me in a hotel,” Webb said. “They 
weren’t telling us. Just recently, I 
decided I couldn’t do it anymore. 
It just felt like a game, because 
I’m sure that they know that the 
move-in dates couldn’t happen 
on those days. But they were still 
giving us false hope.”

Organizers are requesting that 

the University issue a statement to 
The One regarding its treatment 
of U-M students and that the 
University cut its advertising ties 
with The One by removing ads for 
the complex on the off-campus 
housing website Beyond the Diag. 

Conrad 
Kosowsky, 
fourth 

year PhD student and one of the 
organizers of the letter, said he 
felt that the University shouldn’t 
be 
advertising 
housing 
that 

doesn’t exist. 

“I think it’s really bad of 

the University to be providing 
a platform for an apartment 
complex when that complex is 

treating university students so 
incredibly poorly.”

They are also asking the 

University to provide tenants 
with meal swipes at dining 
halls. According to the letter, 
“a 
representative 
survey 
of 

tenants” showed that over 50% of 
respondents have skipped meals 
and/or school-related events to 
save money. 

“It appears that hundreds of 

students have not yet received 
their promised stipends from The 
One and therefore cannot use 
that money to purchase food,” the 
letter reads.

Webb said that when she 

contacted the Dean of Students 
to obtain meal card swipes for 
tenants who were living in hotels, 
she was met with unreasonable 
options 
and 
little 
support, 

especially for students given 
hotels in farther cities.

“‘The One is giving you $50 a 

day. You can use that,’” Webb said 
the Dean of Students told her. 
“But for some people who were 
out in Canton and Livonia, that’s 
not really a viable option because 
they have to use that $50 a day to 
get to campus.”

Other 
requests 
included 

encouraging faculty to create 
virtual learning opportunities for 
students who are commuting to 
campus or staying in hotels due 
to their housing displacement, 
as well as providing alternative 
transportation 
resources 
for 

tenants. The One has provided a 
shuttle service to get to campus; 
however, 
organizers 
say 
the 

shuttle timing is unreliable.

“The 
One 
has 
offered 

inconsistent and poorly timed 
shuttle service to its current 
tenants, with long, unscheduled 
wait times and some routes 
taking well over an hour to arrive 
on campus,” the letter reads.

Given 
these 
and 
other 

difficulties, 
70% 
of 
survey 

respondents reported that “the 
emotional 
distress 
from 
the 

delay will affect their academic 
performance,” according to the 
open letter. 

“At this difficult time, we need 

you to advocate for us,” the letter 
reads. “University students were 
pressured (78% of respondents); 
given 
inadequate 
information 

or insufficient time (98% of 
respondents); and had days when 

they didn’t know where they 
would stay (70% of respondents).”

Kosowsky said the University 

should provide transportation 
resources like Blue Buses or 
parking passes for the students 
who commute 20-30 miles away 
from campus. So far, Kosowsky 
said the University hasn’t been 
helpful with regards to parking. 

“One of the students who 

helped deliver the letter today 
tried to get a parking pass,” 
Kosowsky said of a commuter 
who was ineligible for a parking 
pass and was unable to get special 
permission from the parking 
office. “So now he doesn’t have a 
great place to park his car when 
he drives to campus, which he 
needs to do because the shuttles 
don’t run frequently.”

The letter currently has 312 

signatures, 
and 
organizers 

reported that around 250 tenants 
have contacted each other on 
social media to support each 
other.

Daily Staff Reporters Christian 

Juliano and Justine Ra can be 
reached at julianoc@umich.edu 
and rjustine@umich.edu.

THE ONE
From Page 1

