DEI
Climate Survey

results session

What progress has been made around the climate at U-M over 
the last five years? Join us as we discuss the findings of our latest 
university-wide climate survey from 2021.

RSVP to attend: myumi.ch/M9293 

IN-PERSON SESSION: 
Tuesday, Sept. 27 | 8:30-10 am
Michigan Union, Rogel Ballroom

Open to all students, faculty & staff 

The session will also be livestreamed, recorded and 
posted on the DEI website.

The 
University 
of 
Michigan 

Central 
Student 
Government 

convened 
Tuesday 
evening 
in 

the Michigan Union’s Wolverine 

Room to discuss the Executive 

Committee’s plans for the fall 

semester and CSG’s solidarity with 

U-M nurses.

CSG President Noah Zimmerman, 

an LSA senior, said he and CSG 

vice president Jacqueline Hillman, 

an LSA senior, are committed to 

improving student life and presented 

seven policymaking categories the 

committee aims to focus on: sexual 

misconduct 
prevention, 
campus 

community, streamlining services, 

lowering barriers for accessibility, 

anti-racism, 
sustainable 
campus 

and making sure the University is an 

affordable place.

“So our administration has really 

boiled down to trying to do direct-

to-student programming as much as 

possible and trying to just improve 

students’ 
lives 
through 
small 

but effective policymaking and 

programs and events,” Zimmerman 

said.

Zimmerman 
said 
the 

administration wants to roll out 

orders and make progress on larger 

projects such as wellbeing days, 

dedicating 
spaces 
for 
disabled 

students and streamlining existing 

services.

“(One 
directive 
a 
week) 
is 

difficult, so we’re doing our best,” 

Zimmerman said. “We expect a 

lot of our executive team, and we 

hope we can live up to it. We’re 

also hoping to complete a lot of the 

action items that we’ve had on our 

campaign platform. That’s what 

students elected us to do so we’re 

hoping that we’re able to make a 

difference.”

Following 
the 
presentation, 

LSA 
senior 
Kareem 
Rifai, 

communications 
director, 
urged 

members to use the communications 

request form to submit material to 

CSG social media outlets.

“I’ve 
been 
doing 
interviews 

on behalf of the CSG cabinet and 

also trying to get the social media 

running for fall, and I’m building 

my team now,” Rifai said. “Our 

capacities are getting widened, so 

feel free to use the communications 

request form. It’s there for us to use, 

and I’m excited for the rest of the 

semester.”

The assembly also discussed a 

resolution in support of the Michigan 

Nurses Association introduced by 

CSG Speaker Karthik Pasupula, 

an LSA sophomore. The nurses of 

University of Michigan Professional 

Nurse Council (UMPNC) authorized 

a work stoppage in protest of the 

University’s allegedly disingenuous 

negotiations over a new contract.

The resolution authorizes CSG 

to sign the petition in support of the 

nurses, promises CSG will promote 

picket lines and other solidarity 

actions on its social media and says 

CSG will post guides on how to safely 

picket if a picket line does form. The 

resolution 
passed 
unanimously, 

confirming CSG’s support for the 

UMPNC nurses.

LSA sophomore Jacob Amspaugh 

also submitted a resolution for the 

assembly to consider. He called for 

the creation of an Internship and 

Mentorship Program to create more 

opportunities for students to get 

involved with CSG. The resolution 

states students can apply for an 

internship at CSG and be mentored 

by an assembly member. Interns 

have the opportunity to receive 

need-based compensation for at 

most five hours of CSG work. This 

resolution passed unanimously.

For nominations, Law School 

student Tyler Watt was nominated 

as Student General Counsel by the 

Executive Nominations Committee. 

The nomination was submitted 

to 
the 
assembly 
for 
further 

consideration. 

Zimmerman 
strongly 

recommended Watt for the position, 

citing his experience in student 

government at the University.

“(Tyler) 
has 
a 
humongous 

background of student government 

on Michigan’s campus, and someone 

who would be better qualified for 

the position would be very difficult 

to find,” Zimmerman said.

It’s not unheard of for Michigan 

football-goers to have experienced 

questionable ticket exchanges and, 

among the worst of cases, ticket 

scams. To address this phenomenon, 

four U-M undergraduate students 

recently 
launched 
a 
platform 

called DealDog, designed for U-M 

community 
members 
to 
trade 

football tickets without fear of being 

scammed.

Many students eager to attend 

sporting events search for tickets on 

various platforms, such as GroupMe, 

Craigslist and the Facebook group 

“Buying and Selling Tickets UMich.” 

These methods can potentially leave 

people vulnerable to ticket scams, 

where students send money to a 

seller but never receive their ticket.

DealDog was first launched at 

the beginning of September by LSA 

seniors Elizabeth Loeher and Noam 

Jacobovitz, Business senior Dolan 

Dworak and recent U-M alum Josh 

Siegel. Their goal was simple: create 

a platform where tickets could be 

exchanged simply and securely. 

“We realized that there is no 

centralized organized place for 

students to buy and sell items,” 

Loeher said. “There’s so many items 

that students need specifically that 

the rest of the general population 

doesn’t and there’s no app or 

anything 
that’s 
even 
remotely 

organized for that.”

Jacobovitz said a goal for their 

platform was to cater the app 

towards college students, something 

current buying and selling platforms 

do not achieve.

“All these platforms, they’re not 

really targeted to college students, 

and so there’s a lot of clutter that gets 

in the way,” Jacobovitz said.

Loeher said the app prevents 

scams by requiring all users to be 

verified as U-M students prior to 

making a purchase on the platform. 

She said the platform has been in 

the works for two years, but only 

became an app this semester when it 

launched on Sept. 1. 

“We had a lot of organizational 

meetings on and off throughout the 

last few years but we really started 

putting in the work and grinding 

over the summer,” Loeher said. 

Siegel said being in school full 

time made the process of developing 

the app and creating the business 

more difficult.

“The biggest challenge is just 

really taking the time to sit down 

and grind for it,” Siegel said. “It’s 

always great having an actual idea, 

but without actual implementation 

and just taking time, the effort to 

sit down and actually do what’s 

necessary is the real undertaking.”

In just the first few weeks since 

the launch, Dworak said the initial 

success of their platform was more 

than they were expecting. 

“At present, we have around 700 

verified students, half of which use 

the app daily, so that’s around 350,” 

Dworak said. “We’ve processed 

nearly 6000 (dollars) in tickets, so 

that means $6,000 worth of tickets 

have been sold between other users.”

University 
of 
Michigan 

researchers 
published 
a 
study 

in 
late 
August 
documenting 

the effectiveness of their newly 

developed 
durable 
disinfectant 

coating. 
The 
disinfectant 
kills 

99.9% 
of 
microbes, 
including 

after durability tests, such as UV 

exposure and continuous abrasion. 

U-M alum Abhishek Dhyani, 

a member of the research team, 

said this new formula retains 

the 
advantages 
of 
typical 

disinfectants, but also adds the 

element of longevity to maximize 

effectiveness.

“Today, what we do is we use 

disinfectants, which are very good 

at killing bacteria and viruses, but 

they only last for a short period 

of 
time,” 
Dhyani 
said. 
“They 

essentially evaporate in minutes 

after performing their function 

which necessitates the reapplication 

of disinfection. … What we have 

developed is a coating that brings 

the best of both worlds — so it’s 

instant, it acts within minutes and 

it is also persistent and durable.”

Rackham 
student 
Taylor 

Repetto, another member of the 

research team, explained the team’s 

durability and effectiveness testing 

process. She said after selecting the 

microbes they sought to eliminate, 

the team tested how well different 

formulas could withstand continual 

exposure to these pathogens.

“We 
wanted 
to 
test 
these 

surfaces 
against 
a 
variety 
of 

different bacteria, so we chose E. 

coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and 

MRSA, and those are common 

bacteria responsible for infections,” 

Repetto said. “When COVID hit, we 

got super interested in testing the 

surface against COVID and found 

that it did indeed work very well, 

so that was very exciting. And we 

also tested the ability of the surface 

to withstand re-inoculation, so 

continually exposing the surface 

to bacteria, and (we found) it could 

continually provide that fast rate of 

disinfection over a short amount of 

time.”

Repetto added that in addition 

to testing reexposure to various 

pathogens, they also tested the 

effectiveness 
of 
the 
coating 

over time. The team found their 

formulation still killed 99.9% of 

these pathogens after six months of 

air exposure.

Engineering 
professor 
Anish 

Tuteja, principal investigator for 

the project, said the team also 

subjected 
the 
surface 
coating 

to a variety of harsh chemical 

and mechanical tests, including 

repeatedly cleaning and abrading 

the surface and exposing it to 

ultraviolet light.

Dhyani said the team is looking 

forward 
to 
implementing 
this 

technology on high-touch surfaces, 

from high-density public areas to 

individual possessions. 

“We envision this to be applied 

in surfaces that are prone to high 

contact with humans,” Dhyani said. 

“Think of doorknobs, airport kiosks, 

inside of ride-sharing vehicles. Of 

course, the hospital environment 

(and) daycares being an important 

one. Think of consumer devices, 

like keyboards we type on, cell 

phones that we use.”

Dhyani 
said 
the 
University 

has applied for a patent for this 

technology, 
which 
remains 

pending. 
In 
the 
meantime, 

Tuteja said two companies have 

already licensed their product: 

HygraTek, a membrane technology 

manufacturer he co-founded, and 

Prevada Medical, a medical device 

company 
co-founded 
by 
Scott 

VanEpps, another member of the 

research team. 

HygraTek has expressed interest 

in turning this coating into a stick-

on film that individuals can apply 

to surfaces they want to keep 

sanitary, such as their cell phone 

screen. Prevada has licensed the 

technology to create an orthodontic 

foam 
to 
prevent 
ventilator-

associated pneumonia in hospital 

patients.

Tuteja 
highlighted 
that 
all 

11 authors on this project are 

affiliated with the University. He 

said this speaks to the variety of 

perspectives and disciplines across 

campus.

“One of the big things is this is 

a completely U-M team,” Tuteja 

said. “All of the members are U-M 

(faculty), and it really highlights all 

of the different things that can be 

done within the University, from 

coming up with new materials 

all the way to actual real-world 

testing.”

Daily Staff Reporter Samantha 

Rich can be reached at sammrich@

umich.edu.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, September 21, 2022 — 3

‘U’ researchers develop 99.9% effective 
disinfectant

SAMANTHA RICH
Daily Staff Reporter

NEWS

CSG shares fall strategy, passes resolution supporting nurses

JOEY LIN
Daily Staff Reporter

ACADEMICS

Students launch DealDog 
for safe ticket exchanges

EMMA MOORE
Daily Staff Reporter

Coating protects surfaces from COVID, MRSA for months

App verifies identities to prevent scams, has cleared 
$6,000 in sales

Executive branch shares plans for rolling out campus programming

NEWS

Design by Kate Shen

 Read more at MichiganDaily.com

 Read more at MichiganDaily.com

GRACE BEAL/Daily

