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 

