As of the latest update on Sept.
7, 683 COVID-19 cases occurred
on the University of Michigan’s
Ann Arbor campus during the
first week of school, according to
the Campus Blueprint COVID-19
Dashboard. That’s nearly triple
the number of cases on campus
this time last year, with 182
positive cases reported during the
first week in Fall 2021.
The positivity rate for COVID-
19 cases during the first week of
fall 2022 was 6.3%, an increase
from the 0.8% campus positivity
rate the first week of fall 2021.
However,
this
semester’s
positivity rate is consistent with
the 6.1% rate during the first
week of the winter 2022 semester.
Overall, the current positive cases
numbers are substantially lower
than they were at the beginning
of the winter 2022 semester when
there were 1,918 positive cases
reported in the first week.
As of Sept. 7, U-M students
were occupying 40.1% of the
quarantine housing provided by
the University.
Unlike the fall 2021 semester,
this semester introduces a new
COVID-19
policy
that
says
masking is optional in almost all
indoor spaces on campus. While
students, faculty and staff were
required to wear masks inside
classrooms
and
recreational
spaces last year, the majority of
students are choosing to forgo
facial coverings in fall 2022.
Masks were also required during
the entirety of the winter 2022
semester.
Since
the
semester
began,
students
and
faculty
have
expressed mixed feelings about
the optional masking protocol,
with some saying the freedom has
boosted class culture while others
say they still feel unsafe in large
groups.
When asked for comment on
future changes in masking policies
and the current number of COVID-
19 cases on campus, University
spokeswoman Kim Broekhuizen
pointed The Michigan Daily to the
Sept. 2 message sent out by Robert
Ernst, U-M chief health officer, on
current quarantine housing and
masking protocols. The message
outlines the isolation procedure
for
on-campus
students
and
makes suggestions for what off-
campus students can do to protect
themselves.
“As the fall semester gets
underway, campus is buzzing
with excitement and interactions
through orientation activities and
social gatherings,” Ernst wrote in
the message. “Not surprisingly,
with the repopulation of campus,
we
are
seeing
transmission
of
COVID-19
within
our
community.”
Washtenaw
County’s
community
COVID-19
level
currently stands at a “medium”
level, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC). The CDC recommends
immunocompromised individuals
or those who are at high risk for
a severe disease wear a mask
indoors, which is in line with the
University of Michigan’s current
masking policy.
For the fall semester, all U-M
students, faculty and staff are
required to be up to date on their
COVID-19
vaccinations
in
an
effort to prevent severe cases of
COVID-19, with a few medical and
religious exceptions. Currently,
95% of students, 95% of faculty
and 90% of staff are up to date on
their COVID-19 vaccinations.
Walgreens
pop-up
clinics
are offering flu and COVID-
19 vaccines to U-M students,
faculty and staff at the following
locations around the University’s
campus throughout the month of
September:
Wednesday, Sept. 7 – Mosher
Jordan (Upper Blue Market area)
Thursday, Sept. 8 – Bursley
Lounge
Friday, Sept. 9 – Bursley Lounge
Tuesday, Sept. 13 – South Quad
Transformer Room (next to the
dining hall)
Thursday, Sept. 15 – South
Quad Transformer Room (next to
the dining hall)
Monday, Sept. 19 – Mosher
Jordan (Upper Blue Market area)
Wednesday, Sept. 21 – Mosher
Jordan (Upper Blue Market area)
Daily Staff Reporter Rachel
Mintz can be reached at mintzrac@
umich.edu
Pandemic
restrictions
like
mandatory masks in classrooms
and the testing requirement for
unvaccinated students are gone
for the Fall 2022 semester. The
masking requirement was removed
at the start of the spring semester
while
the
testing
requirement
— which required unvaccinated
individuals to undergo weekly
COVID-19 testing — was lifted for
the start of the fall semester.
As a result of these changes,
instructors — including those who
are immunocompromised — are no
longer able to require masks within
their classrooms. This has led to
disputes between the University
of Michigan and the Lecturers’
Employee
Organization
(LEO),
which believes its members should
be able to require masks within
their instructional spaces.
Kirsten Herold, LEO President
and Public Health lecturer, said
a majority of LEO members want
to have authority over requiring
masks in their classes.
“Well
over
90%
(of
LEO
members) agree that instructors
who, for whatever reason, feel
unsafe in their classroom ought
to be able to require students (to)
mask,” Herold said. “(We’ve been
told) we can’t do it. I think there
are departments that are sort of
saying, ‘Well, if you ask students
to please mask, they’ll probably all
do it,’ which I think has been some
people’s experience, but there are
other departments who say you
can’t even say, ‘Please mask.’”
Public Policy professor Paula
Lantz is one professor who is
requesting
that
students
wear
masks. She said she is “respectfully”
asking students to mask even
though she cannot require it.
Lantz said she plans to follow
COVID-19 guidelines outlined by
the Washtenaw County Health
Department, which showed that
the COVID-19 level in Washtenaw
County was “high” and wastewater
COVID-19 levels were “extremely
high” at the beginning of the fall
semester.
“I have told my students that
while current campus policy is
that masks are optional in class, I
am ‘respectfully requesting’ that
they wear a mask in class and when
speaking to me one on one,” Lantz
wrote. “It is not a requirement, but
a respectful request based on public
health science (and) guidance,
and also the fact that a number of
people in my courses this fall —
including me — are at high risk for
COVID complications.”
Masking is not just an issue
for lecturers; graduate student
instructors are also experiencing a
new semester without mandatory
masking.
Rackham
student
Jared Eno, Graduate Employees’
Organization (GEO) president, said
he feels the new masking policy
does not reflect current community
transmission levels.
“These (policies) are basically
optional at this point,” Eno said.
“They don’t seem to have much
of a relationship with … the level
of community transmission. So in
that sense, the University is placing
the
responsibility
for
keeping
ourselves safe on us as individuals,
as students, as workers.”
Eno
also
said
he
believes
the
new
policies
are
putting
immunocompromised students and
faculty at risk.
“This
university
policy
is
making all of us vulnerable to
COVID
including
potentially
long
term
effects,
or
long
COVID,” Eno said. “That’s true
for all of us, but particularly
for
immunocompromised
grad
students and immunocompromised
people in general. People who
live with or have friends or family
who
are
immunocompromised,
it’s putting all those folks in a
pretty terrible position of choosing
between their livelihoods and their
health.”
Both the leaders of LEO and GEO
feel many of these issues are a result
of a lack of communication between
the University administration and
instructors.
“The University frankly isn’t
very interested in what we have
to say at this point,” Herold said.
“The COVID Council has been
disbanded. It was never a deciding
body, but it was an advisory body
that gave advice and also gave
university leadership some sense of
how people were going to respond
because we were kind of a sounding
board.”
In fall 2020, GEO went on strike
in protest of the COVID-19 policies
at the time. Now, two years later,
Eno feels graduate student voices
are still not being considered in
changes to the COVID-19 policies.
“The union has never been
included in these decisions,” Eno
said. “Now, of course, grad workers
went on strike in fall 2020 after
trying for months to communicate
and get information in a meaningful
way from the administration about
campus safety. So unfortunately,
the
University’s
lack
of
transparency and engagement with
the community at this point seems
pretty standard.”
LSA freshman Toby Buckfire
believes
the
masking
and
vaccination policies work as they
currently are.
“Overall, I still do feel pretty
comfortable even if most people
do not wear masks just because
of
everyone
having
vaccines,”
Buckfire said.
Not
all
faculty
members
were opposed to the new policy.
Statistics professor Jack Miller
said the move to optional masking
reduced the friction of enforcing
mask mandates.
“I
think
(mask)
optional
is
probably
best
because
the
enforcement
has
been
very
difficult,” Miller said.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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2 — Wednesday, September 14, 2022
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U-M students, faculty share mixed feelings about
removal of masking requirements in the classroom
MATTHEW SHANBOM &
MEGHAN KUNKLE
Daily Staff Reporters
NEWS
Three times more COVID-19 cases than
fall 2021 in first week of unmasked classes
RACHEL MINTZ
Daily Staff Reporter
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Managing Editor kmwblue@umich.edu
MARIA DECKMANN/Daily
Students take notes during a lecture in the William H. Dow Chemistry & Laboratory building Thursday.
NEWS
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Some cite risks for immunocompromised, others emphasize personal decisions
Over 600 community members test positive in first week of classes