I posted this on the UMich 2025 EA forum. I now realize that positing it here would probably been more appropriate.
My son is a freshman this year, and he had a lot of fun this semester. I believe his positive experience was primarily due to two factors. The first is that he already knew a lot of incoming freshman prior to attending. He loves the kids and has already made a lot of new friends.
The second is that he also knew some upperclassmen who are members of fraternities. That helped him during rush, and he is now pledging one of those fraternities. While he could not experience football at the Big House, you can’t miss something you’ve never known. And, maybe that was for the best, given how dreadful the football team was this year.
My son’s positive experience was both facilitated and hindered by the UMich administration’s approach to Covid. It was facilitated because the administration chose to take a flawed strategy towards Covid. My son already had the virus during the summer, and as a result, I was not worried about him becoming infected at school.
While UMich did implement some rules and “voluntary” testing, they really did not do all that much to enforce those rules. They chose an “education” over “enforcement” strategy. In my experience, adults don’t even follow laws, rules or regulations without the threat of enforcement. The administration’s belief that 18 to 22 years would follows Covid-related rules, with relatively toothless enforcement and a Covid mortality rate (for their age group) of about 0.001%, is laughable. By the time the administration and the town came to the realization that off campus parties and Greek life were major contributing factors to the spread of Covid in and around campus (as opposed to in-person classes or those living in dorms), it was too late, and the damage had been done. Yes, even though my son benefited from this strategy, I would have preferred that they had taken a harder line from the beginning. If they had, the administration might not have then overcompensated for their poorly conceived initial strategy.
In the second week of November, the administration overreacted by summarily cancelling all housing contracts for the second semester leaving freshmen (and others) very little time to find off-campus housing in Ann Arbor; a housing market that typically requires students to lock in leases 8 or 9 months in advance. The only reason my son had a good experience this semester was because he was in Ann Arbor. Staying home for the second semester was not an option. After a lot of stress and expense, he was able to lease a house with some of his pledge brothers.
The UMich administration’s handling of Covid clearly did not embody the University’s “Leaders and Best” mantra. It was pretty pathetic, and history will not treat them well. Sorry for the rant, but I’ve been waiting to get this off of my chest for a while. I will try to end on a positive note. Hopefully, all of the negative experiences during 2020-21 academic year will fade into oblivion once a majority of the country is vaccinated. And, if the AD sees fit to make some big changes, maybe my son will be watching winning football in the Big House next fall. Hope springs eternal.