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
News
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 

