The 
University 
of 
Michigan 

Board of Regents voted last month 

to extend Winter Break for the 

2023-2024 academic year by one 

week to promote student and staff 

mental health. Since the University 

announced 
the 
change 
to 
the 

academic calendar, students and staff 

alike have expressed their support of 

the policy.

In accordance with the new policy, 

the winter 2024 term will begin on 

Jan. 10 and final examinations will 

start on Apr. 25 and end on May 2. 

Commencement activities will move 

from the end of April to May 3-5.

In a University Record article, 

University Provost Laurie McCauley 

said the idea to lengthen Winter 

Break came as a result of suggestions 

from U-M community members.

“The feedback we’ve heard from 

students, faculty and staff around 

well-being gave us pause and led us 

to wonder if there was more we could 

do with the academic calendar to 

address these concerns,” McCauley 

said. 

In 
an 
interview 
with 
The 

Michigan Daily, Dr. Robert Ernst, 

chief health officer and executive 

director 
of 
University 
Health 

Services, said he was indirectly 

involved with the process to extend 

the break between semesters. Ernst 

serves on the Well-Being Collective, 

an organization of administrative 

groups seeking to improve the well-

being and mental health of students 

on campus. Ernst said a working 

group within the Collective that 

focuses on examining University 

policies helped suggest the extended 

Winter Break to administration.

“I thought (it) was really great 

that the executive leadership and 

the academic affairs partners, who 

have been really strong in this Well-

being Collective work, reconsidered 

the policy and decided to make a 

move,” he said. “(The policy) will 

really reduce the stress for many as 

(students and faculty are) trying (to) 

restart for the winter semester next 

year.”

LSA senior Noah Zimmerman, 

Central 
Student 
Government 

president, 
told 
The 
Daily 
that 

he, alongside LSA senior Jackie 

Hillman, 
CSG 
Vice 
President, 

advocated for a longer Winter Break 

to support student mental health in 

meetings with U-M administration. 

Zimmerman said he and Hillman 

are in full support of the change 

to lengthen the break between 

semesters.

“This has really been something 

that (CSG has) talked about with 

the provost and especially with 

(former University President Mary 

Sue Coleman) right before she left,” 

Zimmerman said. “I think it really 

gives students the opportunity to 

relax more (and) get prepared.”

Zimmerman said he had heard 

positive support for the suggestion to 

lengthen Winter Break from mental 

health focused student organizations. 

Because the announcement for the 

new policy came just before Spring 

Break, Zimmerman said he has 

not not yet received direct student 

feedback about the new change. 

According to Zimmerman, CSG 

officers regularly meet with student 

organizations which focus on mental 

health to discuss how to support 

students on campus and collaborate 

on ideas for how to address mental 

health 
concerns. 
Among 
these 

student groups is Wolverine Support 

Network, a club dedicated to mental 

health advocacy and facilitating free 

peer-to-peer support groups.

LSA senior Izzy Steinberg serves 

as WSN’s executive director and as a 

member of the Well-being Collective. 

Steinberg spoke with The Daily about 

the positive community response for 

extending Winter Break,

“(Extending Winter Break is) 

something that felt like it didn’t even 

need to be said,” Steinberg said. “It 

was just a change that I think lots of 

students on campus want.”

Though Steinberg will graduate 

this year, she highlighted how 

the change will be beneficial for 

returning and incoming students.

“I can imagine that having like an 

extra week with my family and my 

friends at home would just be really 

nice to do things that are positive 

for my mental health and well-being 

like spending time with loved ones,” 

Steinberg said.

On Monday, the Department of 

Student Life announced that the 

University will now provide six free 

mental health counseling sessions to 

students every year they are enrolled. 

The new program is a part of the 

University’s partnership with Uwill, 

a teletherapy service connected with 

mental health care providers across 

the country.

Anthropology 
lecturer 
Leigh 

Stuckey also spoke with The Daily 

about her support for the academic 

calendar change. As a parent of 

two kids who attend public school 

and preschool school in Ann Arbor, 

Stuckey said returning to work at 

the University after Winter Break a 

week before her children go back to 

school presented many difficulties. 

Stuckey said she is looking forward to 

the extended break so she can evade 

these difficulties. 

“Starting off the semester with 

a full week when I don’t have 

childcare for my children, but need 

to be not only preparing for my 

classes, but teaching them has been 

a really challenging thing over the 

past few years,” Stuckey said. “I’m 

really excited to see that change 

particularly to accommodate the 

really difficult work-life balance of 

being a parent and being a faculty 

member.”

Rackham student Sangita Saha, 

an international student from India, 

told The Daily she agrees with 

Stuckey that making Winter Break 

longer will allow students and staff to 

spend more time with their families. 

Because Winter Break was previously 

only two weeks, Saha said she had not 

considered traveling home to India. 

“With starting at least a week later 

there is an opportunity to consider 

going back home to family, which 

is important for me, so important 

in making sure that I’m in the right 

frame of mind to work energized and 

my mental health is okay,” Saha said. 

Around 50 participants virtually 

joined The Center for Racial Justice’s 

virtual workshop to learn from 

multidisciplinary artist Holly Bass 

Thursday afternoon. The discussion 

was part of the Racial Practice in 

Workshop series called “Activating 

joy with Holly Bass: Creative 

practices for authentic community 

building”. Bass led attendees over 

zoom in an interactive discussion 

through artistic activities to spark 

conversations on the intersection 

between activism and joy.

Dominique 
Adams-Santos, 
a 

senior research fellow and lecturer 

at the Ford School of Public Policy, 

opened the event by explaining how 

public policy can be used to advance 

racial equity within organizations 

and communities. 

“We recognize the power of 

public policy to bolster or undercut 

our life opportunities and we see 

policy analysis as a critical tool 

for us to measure, reflect, and 

historically examine and help us 

define the way forward,” Adams-

Santos said. 

Bass 
then 
spoke 
on 
the 

workshop’s mission, emphasizing 

the importance of enjoying and 

finding joy in activism and policy 

work.

“We can start infusing joyful 

practices into the work we do now, 

whether we’re students, whether 

we are in the workplace,” Bass said. 

“That’s kind of the mission and 

intent of today’s session,” Bass said.

Bass started her activities by 

asking the audience to “flood” 

the chat of the Zoom call with 

descriptions of things that brought 

them joy in the past five days. 

The attendees wrote a range of 

responses, from nice conversations 

with co-workers to seeing the 

sunshine. Audience members were 

then asked to act out their response 

with a small on screen gesture. 

Bass then prompted the audience 

members to create a dance with their 

gestures, resulting in movements 

like hugging an imaginary cat and 

stretching.

For the second activity, Bass 

asked audience members to discuss 

and define a list of words and 

phrases, 
including 
“activism”, 

“organizing” 
and 
“culture-shift 

work”. Bass defined “culture-shift 

work” as the work of expanding 

interconnectedness 
over 
time 

between 
different 
individuals 

and defined activism as a public-

oriented and highly visible activity.

“(When) you think about protests 

and marches, (activism) brings 

awareness of an issue to a larger 

public and galvanizes support,” 

Bass said. “It draws the media and 

public attention.” 

After learning about each word, 

Bass asked attendees to draw their 

own versions of each phrase or 

word on a piece of paper and share 

what they came up with. Bass then 

divided the audience members 

into small groups to create poems 

describing the phrases through the 

five senses. The words and phrases 

discussed included “joy”, “justice”, 

“culture 
shift” 
and 
“a 
better 

world”. One group wrote about joy, 

describing it as feeling like warm 

sunshine on skin.

In 
an 
interview 
with 
The 

Michigan Daily after the event, 

Rackham student Kayla Guillory, 

who currently studies integrative 

design and public policy, said 

she enjoyed how the event was 

structured as a workshop and 

involved artistic approaches to the 

subject. 

“Getting to attend some more 

workshop-feeling events is nice,” 

Guillory said. “I like to absorb 

information and think about trying 

to translate things in my own 

practice of policy and design.”

Guillory 
also 
expressed 

appreciation for Bass’s perspective 

as an artist and how joy can be 

integrated into policy and activism 

work. 

“We don’t often associate (policy 

work and activism) with maybe 

the idea of joy, or at least I don’t,” 

Guillory said. “So thinking about 

how that can be integrated is both 

a new and exciting notion … and 

something that hopefully changes 

the way that the work is sometimes 

framed.”

The University of Michigan held 

a symposium as part of University 

President Santa Ono’s inauguration 

ceremony 
Tuesday 
morning. 

The 
Inauguration 
Symposium 

was preceded by a student poster 

session, two keynote speakers and 

discussions with a faculty panel.

The symposium opened with a 

poster session featuring student 

projects on either of the symposium 

topics, including “intersection of 

race and the identity of U-M” and 

“fighting climate change.” A panel 

of judges evaluated the posters at the 

symposium and awarded at least five 

from each topic with up to $5,000 to 

fund the student’s projects.

U-M Flint sophomore Alexandra 

Barto 
and 
freshman 
Marwa 

Hammami traveled to Ann Arbor 

for the symposium to present their 

poster “A walk through history,” an 

original walkthrough experience 

that would highlight diversity on 

campus. The pair told The Michigan 

Daily they wanted to attend the 

session to increase recognition for 

the U-M Flint campus.

“The University of Michigan-Flint 

(campus) is very underestimated,” 

Hammami said. “Each campus is rich 

with its history and how it started.”

LSA 
senior 
Thea 
Bultman 

attended 
the 
poster 
session 

representing 
Wolverine 
Support 

Network, a student-run organization 

centered on student mental health. 

WSN’s poster proposed a forum 

where 
non-traditional 
students 

can voice their opinions on campus 

mental 
health 
resources. 
The 

University 
announced 
plans 
to 

expand 
student 
mental 
health 

resources through Uwill an outside 

mental health service on Monday. 

Bultman told The Daily she sees this 

announcement as a good step for the 

University to take.

“I think it’s really great that they’re 

leaning into (Uwill),” Bultman said. 

“(We want to) make sure that with 

CAPS’s capacity, students can still 

get the support they need.”

Rackham 
students 
Katherine 

Geraghty 
and 
Diana 
Martinez 

presented their plan for reclaiming 

land on the Inglewood oil field in 

Los Angeles, which was created as 

a part of a project for the School of 

Environment 
and 
Sustainability. 

Martinez told The Daily the pair 

chose to bring the project to the 

postering session due to its range of 

applications.

“This project will be an initiative 

that will serve not only (Los 

Angeles),” Martinez said. “It would 

be more of a broad thing. With the 

guidelines we’re developing, it can be 

applied anywhere.”

Rackham 
student 
Henry 

Valachovic 
attended 
the 
poster 

session 
as 
a 
representative 
of 

Michigan Marine Energy, a new 

organization 
focused 
on 
wave 

energy, and presented plans for a 

wave energy solution in Alaska. 

Valachovic told The Daily he wants 

to promote the use of wave energy 

as an alternative to fossil fuels in 

Alaska.

“Over half of all wave energy 

potential in the U.S. is in the southern 

coast of Alaska,” Valachovic said. 

“Right now, (Alaska) relies pretty 

much solely on diesel energy, one of 

the highest carbon types of energy.”

U-M alum Frank H. Wu, president 

of Queens College in New York, was 

the event’s first keynote speaker and 

gave a talk titled “The University 

and its Community: Past, Present 

and Future.” While discussing the 

University’s past, Wu spoke about 

the impact that white flight, the 

migration of the white middle class 

to the suburbs, had on the city of 

Detroit, which had allowed blue-

collar automotive workers to retire 

with a pension only prior to the 

migration.

“Suburban sprawl soon crossed 

8 Mile Road and that network of 

interstate highways enabled families 

to empty out neighborhoods even 

as those highways divided some 

neighborhoods,” Wu said. “There 

(was) hope again, though, that 

the artisans and farmers (would 

return) and even the rebuilding 

of the magnificent train station 

downtown.”

The first panel was moderated by 

Corie Pauling, president and CEO 

of the U-M Alumni Association. 

While discussing the future of the 

University, Pauling spoke on the 

incoming 
Generation 
Alpha, 
or 

children born after 2010.

“(Generation Alpha) is used to a 

world of extremes, whether we’re 

talking about weather, whether we’re 

talking about the extreme prevalence 

of school shootings,” Pauling said. 

“They are used to education without 

books. They learn from screens. And 

lastly, they are completely dedicated 

to saving the planet.”

The second keynote speaker was 

Janet Napolitano, former secretary 

of Homeland Security. Her session, 

titled “Working Together to Tackle 

the Climate Crisis,” focused on the 

steps universities can take to combat 

climate change. When Napolitano 

was president of the University of 

California, she introduced a plan 

for the university to obtain a carbon 

neutrality plan for 2025.

“As 
we’ve 
now 
discovered, 

however, achieving true carbon 

neutrality is virtually impossible 

without purchasing carbon offsets 

and carbon offsets themselves are 

nearly 
impossible 
to 
measure,” 

Napolitano said. “So we need to be 

real about this.”

Napolitano also spoke on the 

importance 
of 
universities 
in 

combating climate change due to 

their ability to make rapid changes as 

large institutions.

“Universities 
can 
take 
risks 

in ways small businesses can’t,” 

Napolitano said. “(The students) 

want to say ‘I’m going to try this new 

mode of operation.’”

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News

Presidential inauguration hosts symposium on DEI, climate change

ADMINISTRATION

UMich campus expresses support for extended winter break

Artist Holly Bass hosts leads workshop on activism and joy

The University hosted keynote speakers and student organizations during the Inauguration Symposium

U-M community members discuss benefits of the University’s decision to extend 
Winter Break for the 2023-2024 academic year

The Center for Racial Justice hosts artist Holly Bass for an interactive workshop on the
 intersections of activism, joy and art

ADMINISTRATION

GOVERNMENT

Wednesday, March 15, 2023 — 3

JOANNA CHAIT
Daily Staff Reporter

 JI HOON CHOI
Daily Staff Reporter

MATTHEW SHANBOM
Daily Staff Reporter

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

JENNA HICKEY/Daily

Design by Sara Fang

Vice President for Governor Relations Chris Kolb, 20th President of the University of California Janet Napolitano, Professor of 
Afroamerican and African studies Omolade Adunbi, Professor of Mechanical Engineering Margaret Wooldridge and Professor of Man-
agement & Organizations Andy Hoffman speak in a panel titled ‘Working Together to Tackle the Climate Crisis” during the Presidential 
Inauguration Symposium in the Stamps auditorium Tuesday morning. 

