The University of Michigan is
home to more than 1,700 student-
run organizations for students to
join. Following a completely virtual
year, many of these student organiza-
tions are now returning to in-person
events, similar to pre-pandemic life.
Others, however, are reaping the ben-
efits of continuing with a flexible vir-
tual or hybrid format.
The Michigan Daily spoke to
five leaders and members of student
organizations to learn how they are
adjusting to being in-person or choos-
ing to stay virtual as the new semester
begins.
Pre-pandemic life and the shift
to a virtual format
Caiden Baxter, LSA Junior and
member of the Adaptive Sports
Student Interest Group, an organiza-
tion assisting those with and without
disabilities in physical fitness oppor-
tunities and increasing awareness
of adaptive sports, explained that
the group heavily relies on in-person
interaction.
“Being so closely tied to physical
activity and sports, pre-COVID our
events were almost entirely held in
person,” Baxter wrote. “During the
shift to a remote format, our organiza-
tion had time to reassess our plans for
when the campus reopened. We also
worked with the (Adaptive Sports
and Fitness) program to develop an
accessible online physical fitness pro-
gram for at-home use.”
LSA senior Lydia Goff, co-presi-
dent of Best Buddies, shared that both
their weekly meetings and monthly
in-person community events were
impacted by the pandemic. Best Bud-
dies is an organization that matches
University students to an adult with
intellectual or developmental disabili-
ties and hosts monthly events to build
friendships and relationships.
In an email to The Daily, Goff
wrote holding events for Best Buddies
is significantly more difficult when
done online, but the rewards can also
be greater. Depending on the comfort
level of members with getting togeth-
er with their buddies, Goff wrote that
contact in friendships was mostly vir-
tual or socially distanced.
“COVID helped reinforce the
importance of friendship and inclu-
sion in our members, as social isola-
tion touched all of our lives,” Goff
wrote. “I think college buddies espe-
cially got a better understanding of
how significant a simple phone call
or texting conversation can be to both
them and their buddies.”
Doctors of Tomorrow is a part-
nership between the Medical School
and two Detroit high schools —
Class Technical High School and
Marygrove High School — serving
as a channel for medical students to
assist high schoolers and increase
their involvement in the medical
community. The organization previ-
ously met completely in person, with
high school students visiting the
Medical School at least once a month.
Medical School student Natalie
Guzman, director of programming
for Doctors of Tomorrow, explained
that her role in the organization was
significantly affected by the pan-
demic.
“A big reason that I got involved
with Doctors of Tomorrow was
because I wanted to actually interact
with students and serve as a mentor,”
Guzman said. “But because of the vir-
tual nature of everything, my role was
slightly more administrative in terms
of finding speakers, organizing small
groups, things like that. I think if we
were in-person I’d be able to interact
with the students more.”
Deciding whether to return
to in-person events and looking
toward the future
With some classes still in a virtual
or hybrid format, many clubs and
organizations are seeing benefits
from continuing to meet virtually.
Public Health and Social Work
student Brandon Bond, president of
the Public Health Student Assem-
bly, explained the organization has
advanced in a virtual format, despite
the pandemic.
“I believe many of us are fully
vaccinated and COVID-19 cautious,
however with a board of our size it
is easier and more convenient to
hold our meetings virtually,” Bond
wrote. “With the protocols of the
university and potential change of
guidelines, meeting virtually helps
avoid all of that (confusion).”
Guzman said Doctors of Tomor-
row was able to work with more
students during the pandemic, a
benefit of the virtual format.
“Hopefully going forward we
can do a hybrid type situation, in
terms of getting to interact with
students in person but also (main-
taining) the pros of the virtual
world,” Guzman said.
Though Baxter wrote the Adap-
tive Sports Student Interest Group
was able to reach a wider audience
of participants with a virtual for-
mat, he wrote they were eager to
return to meeting and collaborat-
ing in person as soon as possible.
“We hope to continue to spread
awareness of … adaptive sports, as
well as increase the variety of the
programming we offer,” Baxter
wrote.
Goff said that Best Buddies
is looking forward to their first
in-person event at the end of the
month and they hope to expand
their organization to include more
buddies.
“Once my buddy and I were vac-
cinated, we took advantage right
away of the opportunity to get
lunch together indoors without
masks — something we had not
been able to do for over a year,” Goff
said. “This year, I’m hoping our
organization can continue to grow
its impact. … I’m hoping that we
can expand our overall outreach
and become a more familiar name
in the Ann Arbor community.”
Recruitment during a virtual
year
Because Festifall, a student
organization recruiting fair, was
held in person this semester, many
organizations found recruiting to
be easier than when it was done
virtually.
Goff wrote the event was an
immense help for recruiting many
new students.
“We’ve had a huge surge in
prospective college buddies and
have been overwhelmed by their
excitement,” Goff wrote. “I think
Festifall
definitely
helped
us
attract more members, as well as
our social media platforms. Many
college buddies choose to join
Best Buddies after doing it in high
school so that always gives us a
solid membership base.”
Baxter echoed this statement,
saying the Adaptive Sports Student
Interest Group is eager to return
to in-person programming with
many new members.
“Recruiting members this year
has been significantly easier than
the virtual school year because
so much of our programming has
returned,” Baxter wrote. “We are
excited to get people out and play-
ing sports again.”
Daily Staff Reporter Kaitlyn Luck-
off can be reached at kluckoff@umich.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
2 — Wednesday, September 22, 2021
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CAMPUS LIFE
Student organizations discuss adjusting to
in-person operations after a year online
Some clubs continue to meet virtually due to convenience and COVID-19 concerns
KAITLYN LUCKOFF
Daily Staff Reporter
Associate Editor: Julia Maloney
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
Junior midfielder Nina Apoola carries that ball for the field hockey’s team win against Ball State Friday evening.
PHOTO
State Sen. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann
Arbor, spoke to the crowd about his
efforts to pass Senate Bill 631, which
would legalize entheogenic plants
and fungi for non-commercial use in
Michigan.
“We know these substances have
tremendous
medicinal
benefits,”
Irwin said to the crowd. “We know
they have religious and cultural
significance. And we know that
they’re not particularly harmful to
people and these substances aren’t
likely to lead to addiction.”
The bill, introduced by Irwin on
Sept. 2, seeks to amend numerous
sections of the public health code to
include provisions related to the use
and possession of entheogenic plants.
“An individual is not in violation
of this section if the individual
manufactures, creates, delivers, or
possesses with intent to manufacture,
create, or deliver an entheogenic plant
or fungus without receiving money or
other valuable consideration for the
entheogenic plant or fungus,” the bill
reads.
State Rep. Yousef Rabhi, D-Ann
Arbor, chose to speak at Entheofest
to
stress
how
pharmaceutical
companies
are
“greedy”
by
advocating for the criminalization of
entheogens.
“When
you
look
at
the
pharmaceutical companies and the
drugs that they’ve manufactured,
look at the opioid epidemic — they
have killed more people with the
opioid epidemic than mushrooms
have ever killed in their entire
history,” Rabhi said to the audience.
“There is no comparison. So, why are
we allowing these pharmaceutical
companies to continue to do their
thing, and allowing these things to
continue to be criminalized, when
the real medicine is growing in the
ground?”
Social
Work
student
Moss
Herberholz,
president
of
the
Student Association for Psychedelic
Studies, said research has shown
plant medicines have significant
therapeutic
potential
and
that
efforts to decriminalize entheogenic
substances is a step forward in ending
the War on Drugs.
“Decriminalizing these substances
reduces the number of people who
are incarcerated through the racist
War on Drugs,” Herberholz said.
The War on Drugs began during
the
Nixon
administration
and
increased penalties for possession
and use of marijuana, psychedelics,
opioids and other substances. The
heightened criminalization of drug
use during this period coincided with
a rise in law enforcement presence
in predominantly Black and Latinx
urban neighborhoods. As a result,
Black and Latinx people make up
about 80% of the total federal prison
population.
Michael Williams, co-director
of Decriminalize Nature Michigan,
secretary for Michigan Psychedelic
Society and member of the Board of
Directors for Students for Sensible
Drug
Policy,
helped
organize
Entheofest and delivered a speech
at the event. Williams has been in
recovery from opioid addiction for 15
years and credits entheogens to the
start of his recovery.
“It was a single psychedelic
mushroom experience trying to just
chase another high, where I took a
look in the cosmic mirror and saw
myself and the things I was doing to
my body, and realized that I needed
to make some life changes,” Williams
told The Daily. “I then was able to give
up opioids, able to distance myself
from
methamphetamines,
and
started looking at psychedelics as a
way to connect with spirituality and
find myself.”
Though he ran into legal trouble
for using entheogens, Williams said as
a white person he saw people of color
receive harsher legal consequences
than he did, which inspired his start
in drug decriminalization activism.
“Having been in the opioid war
and having been on the receiving end
of criminal justice issues regarding
drug law, I found myself recognizing
that I may be a white guy getting in
trouble,” Williams told The Daily.
“But, quite frankly, for every one of
me, there’s nine people of color in
this situation. And I started to see the
racial disparity (in) all this. So that’s
when I became a drug policy activist.”
Managing
News
Editor
Liat
Weinstein can be reached at weinsl@
umich.edu. Daily News Editors Calder
Lewis and Kristina Zheng can be
reached at calderll@umich.edu and
krizheng@umich.edu.
Daily
Staff
Reporter Martha Lewand can be
reached at mlewand@umich.edu.
ENTHEOFEST
FROM PAGE 1