Our administration mishandled COVID-19

Hey guys,
I’m a current sophomore in the college of engineering. I love going here, even though I haven’t been to any sort of game in more than a year. That being said, I’m absolutely torn over how the university has handled the COVID-19 outbreak. Although this might be a one time thing and not a result of the University itself, you can tell a lot about how a school treats its students from its response to an emergency like this, and you should judge other schools on this too although UofM has done a much worse job at accommodating students than most.

I’m going to go through the whole university response, but a summary is:

  1. The administration was unclear about the impact on student housing until far too late, and when they were they caused unnecessary levels of panic.
  2. The administration will not compensate students for services not rendered, like housing and dining beyond a nominal amount.
  3. The administration communicated poorly with academic departments.

Classes resumed after spring break on March 9th. During break, the university had said nothing despite the threat of a full on pandemic like we have now growing. When I flew back from break, my parents sent me with a bag of masks and wet wipes for the airport. My professors thought the university was going to have to do something on the first day back but had heard nothing from above. Mind you, at this point many schools had already extended their breaks and announced switching to remote instruction.

On the 11th, 3 days later, the school announced it would be switching to virtual instruction. Classes were cancelled for the next 2 days and would resume the following Monday. They announced housing operations would continue uninterrupted. However, on the 14th, they sent out an email urging all students to return home and delayed commencement until further notice (which I think was a good move and the one area where we outperformed other schools). On the 16th, they send another email, again urging all students to leave campus. This was about a week after they made everyone return to campus.

The next day, they made it clear that unless students had a reason to stay they had to leave campus. Attached was a form and a vague statement that many students took to mean that they would lose key card access to their rooms at 8 a.m. the next morning. I had already left but when many of my friends who remained on campus saw this, they freaked out and scrambled to make plans to leave. The next day, the 18th in the early afternoon they send out this email:

“Dear Housing Residents:

I am writing first to apologize for the anxiety, concerns and confusion created by the message you received yesterday regarding Housing move-out and consolidation. I also wish to clarify that you were not required to have moved out by 8:00 am this morning.

The message was part of our efforts to respond to the evolving situation we find ourselves in with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our principles involve placing priority on the health and safety of our students. This makes de-densifying living spaces (especially residence halls) in a strategic manner, a very high priority. We also understand that students have different circumstances and we fully expect that some of you will need to remain on campus and are committed to supporting your needs in this process. “

Which to me sounds like creating greater motivation to leave campus beyond simply asking was part of their plan. But that’s just how I read it. By this time, multiple students had tested positive for COVID-19, but the university still thought it was a good idea to send potential carriers back to their homes across the country.

Many of us discovered that our professors had not been informed that students were being forced off of campus until that day, when we received emails apologizing for their attempts to keep continuing through their curriculum at the same pace while students were forced to relocate. This information only spread among them when students desperately asked them for extensions to accommodate move-out and travel. Supposedly, not even the Dean of Engineering was informed by the administration and was outraged when he received his information from professors.

It was not until the 20th that the university announced any sort of refund on room and board. And when they did, it was for $1,200 dollars, not a percent of the cost of room and board. On-campus housing and dining costs $12,000-13,000 a year, and given that they began pushing for students to leave right after spring break, the halfway point of our second semester, we should have received $3,000 or more back. To cap it off, the refund is being delivered after March charges are due. This violated their stated policy of offering proportional refunds in the event of a disruption of services.

This is essentially where we are now. Note, I didn’t comment on the impact on instruction because this varies a lot by department. I haven’t suffered much as a result of being enrolled in lecture-based courses with professors who are technologically-savvy but I have friends in classes that have come to a halt. And I think most professors are trying very hard to continue to educate. The issue is with the administration, which at every point had made life more difficult than necessary for students and their families.

The university will tell you that everyone in the university community is a Wolverine and that community is special. I believe that is true and it’s a big part of why I came here. However, I don’t think the administration believes this. They owe more to the people who comprise this special community than the bare minimum and from this whole fiasco it has become clear that they don’t agree.

I did not agree 100% with you but see your frustration. My son’s a Junior in engineering, still on campus at Northwoods 3.

The world is dealing with a Pandemic. The need changed very fast so the Administration had to change gears quickly. They tried one idea then there was a general shift in thinking.

As a parent I felt very informed. Sure my sons first video class was just OK. But the subsequent ones have. They changed the grading,which is a positive. My son has to meet with his group and present things to his professor then to the class for projects. So learning is happening. In fact he said they are piling it on… Good.

He doesn’t have a meal plan so what they offered to reimburse him made sense and was appropriate. He decided to stay so he is forgoing the credit. He is actually safer on campus then at home. I was also just there. Student’s are getting catered meals for the good plans. They come and pick them up to bring back to their apartments on North Campus

He works for the Department of innovation for their mixed reality initiative and he has meetings and keeping him employed and currently planning for next year.

They used those 2 days, Thursday and and Friday to figure out the next steps.

They delivered those classes that Monday. My daughters Lac closed for over a week to accomplish the same thing.

The Dean of engineering would have to be notified. Every department was notified.

My sons engineering department seemed to run Ok. Change sucks sometimes though. He actually likes the recorded classes and can do the weeks worth of material in one day and grasp the material better.

You are lucky to go to a school with a 15 billion endowment. Many smaller school might not survive the financial toll this has caused. Michigan will remain strong.

I do share in your frustration. But as a parent, not a student I think they made the correct calls

Just hope the fall goes better.

@Knowsstuff I agree that the academic response by most departments was pretty good! I would not agree that most people like the recorded classes but I understand that’s a necessity right now. My primary complaints are about the handling of housing and dining for students in dorms which does not overlap with your son’s experience. We saw them consistently hold off on making important decisions about housing and when they did they were hasty. I had multiple professors email my classes that no one had informed academic units about decisions made regarding student housing. And because the school has such a massive endowment, I expected them to fairly refund students. I think you also have to compare the response to any other school, whether it be MSU or Harvard, who both decided to offer proportional refunds instead of a much smaller fraction at a flat rate. I’m a student, I experienced this firsthand, and my parents are furious whether or not your son has given you reason to be.

Again, I except your frustration. I just don’t know why the experience is so different in just another department of engineering. Maybe it’s because he is a junior. But he is still in University apartments. His roommate left. He petitioned to stay. They said OK. Pretty easy. He is also not on a meal plan. Maybe those few things are making a difference. He is also putting on his conference virtually this Sunday that was canceled. University is supporting him. So I am just seeing this through a different lens. Plus he doesn’t always tell me everything… Lol.

But I do know the university was willing to pack up and either pay for storage or ship items back to the students.

Hopefully they will learn from this. I do believe Michigan will have to give more help for students to come back. This virus will affect many families financially