KALAMAZOO, MI — Some students at Western Michigan University are expressing a lack of confidence in the school’s plan for returning to campus amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
On Monday, Aug. 31, a group of students, led by WMU arts management senior Larkin Babbitt, stood 6 feet apart outside the Seibert Administration building on WMU’s main campus. They protested as freshman campus tours passed by.
The group of about a dozen students wore masks and held signs with phrases like, “Preparing for sick students is not a safe plan,” “The only safe plan is online,” and “Stop putting profits over people.” The student group called on university leaders to end in-person classes and move to online learning, setting a deadline of 5 p.m. Friday for them to do so.
About two hours into the protest, the students met outside of the building with Provost and Vice President of Student Affairs Jennifer Bott.
Bott sat on the curb outside the administration building, jotting down notes for about 20 minutes as Babbitt spoke about her concerns over opening the university for in-person classes from her wheelchair, surrounded by other students who participated in the demonstration.
Babbitt told Bott she is concerned not all faculty members are making choices that students are comfortable with.
“I’m immunocompromised and disabled, so I knew I wouldn’t be returning to campus this semester either way, no matter what the university chose to do,” Babbitt said.
WMU senior Larkin Babbitt speaks with Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Jennifer Bott outside the Seibert Administration Building on the campus of Western Michigan University Monday, Aug. 31, 2020. Babbitt was among a group of students protesting and expressing concerns over the decisions made by university leaders regarding returning to on-campus instruction despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. (Samuel J. Robinson | MLive.com)
With many courses that her major requires being in-person, Babbitt told Bott it has not always been easy for her to find adequate alternatives to in-person courses.
“I have had to really fight my instructors to do this because a lot of the classes I’m required to take to graduate are indeed in-person classes, because it has been left up to faculty members,” Babbitt said.
On Friday, Aug. 28 the university reported 16 people have tested positive for coronavirus, stemming from testing at the campus health center over a two-week period beginning Aug. 9.
Elsewhere in the state, colleges that returned to campus earlier are reporting larger numbers of positive cases. In the two weeks since students returned to Central Michigan University’s campus in Mount Pleasant, a total of 117 new cases have been reported among the campus community, according to the university’s COVID-19 webpage.
Vice President of Student Affairs Diane Anderson told MLive on Tuesday the university has no plans to enact a campus-wide shutdown or send students home if cases begin to spike.
“Students are choosing to be here because they want to be here,” Anderson said, pointing to 3,500 students now living on-campus.
Anderson the university’s decision takes into account the concerns of students whose classes require them to be in-person to remain on track to graduate.
Should there be a need to make changes to what is open on WMU’s campus, she said, the hope is “targeted areas” could be shut down rather than the entire university.
During Monday’s protest, Babbitt also questioned a limit of one free COVID-19 test for asymptomatic students. She said it is one of the biggest issues with the university’s Safe Return Plan.
“To not cover testing for asymptomatic people is going to be very problematic because $84 dollars out of pocket for a test is significant for college students,” Larkin said. “This disincentivizes testing for asymptomatic people who are, by and large, the biggest problem on college campuses.”
Babbitt warned Bott that, without free testing for asymptomatic students, there will be no way to know or trace who has coronavirus and who does not. Currently, students can receive one free test while asymptomatic.
The cost is $84 for any additional tests requested by asymptomatic individuals. It is an issue that Anderson told MLive on Tuesday the university is currently reviewing.
“The initial intent was to give everybody a free one so we would have a baseline, and then if people were symptomatic or based on the daily screening we’re requiring them to do, if they answered yes to any of the questions, they would need to contact Sindecuse to discuss whether they need another test,” Anderson said. “We have things in place in place in order to assess whether there is a need for another test, but we just don’t have a blank check that we can give everybody however many tests they want, but we certainly don’t want testing to be a barrier.”
Even if everyone on campus completely complied with the university’s Safe Return Plan, Babbit argued, there would still be some spread of COVID-19 because of asymptomatic people who contracted the virus but may not know they are spreading it.
“COVID is not happening in a bubble, this campus is not a bubble,” she said. “There are people who have to work jobs that are not on-campus, and then there are people who will continue to not practice good social distancing who you may not have control over.
“Putting our lives and the people who are respecting those rules at the mercy of people who either poor intentioned or not, aren’t compliant, is really scary.”
The university recently announced it will ask every student and faculty member to take a daily self-monitoring questionnaire that includes coronavirus exposure risks and symptoms. The survey will feed into the university’s electronic health record and be used to identify those who may be at high risk of carrying and transmitting COVID-19.
During the back-to-campus briefings last week, the university assured students and community members that students who violate the rules of WMU’s Safe Return Plan or have violated executive orders will be held accountable, with potential consequences including suspension.
But some students say large gatherings are already occurring, on campus and off, without any consequences.
Chloe Ammond, a sophomore at WMU, said she has witnessed multiple gatherings that violate the university’s plan since returning to her apartment at Goldsworth Valley Complex, an on-campus student housing complex.
“There’s one residential manager for the entire complex, and then one housing coordinator, and those are the only two people you can contact if there is an issue,” Ammond told MLive on Tuesday. “If it’s an inconvenient time for them, they’re asleep or they’re just not on campus at the time, your only other option is to call the campus police, so its very much a ’0 or 100′ situation.”
Ammond said getting getting a meaningful response to reports of large gatherings at a volleyball court near her on-campus apartment was like “pulling teeth.”
After sending multiple emails to senior members of WMU’s housing and residence life staff, Ammond said she did not hear a response until the next day. By that time, the gathering of students had dispersed.
As a theater student with just one of her six classes online, Ammond is wondering whether she’ll be able to keep her classmates in her department safe were she to contract COVID-19 from her neighbors.
Anderson said the university is not coordinating enforcement efforts with either Kalamazoo Public Safety or WMU Public Safety.
“The student code is on-campus policy,” she said. “KDPS doesn’t have jurisdiction over administrative policy, but within our new language (in the policy) we do include that people are expected to abide by any state, local, public health laws or executive order, so that ties into off-campus."
With the first day of classes approaching, Anderson said the university has not had formal communications with its on-campus public safety department about enforcement of large gatherings not following health and safety precautions.
Neither representatives from WMU Public Safety nor KDPS could be reached for comment on this story.
Anderson encouraged students who see violations to report them to the student conduct office, which has been tasked with investigating each incident.
Also on MLive:
Western Michigan University reports coronavirus cases as students return to campus
Here’s what we saw in Ann Arbor and on University of Michigan’s campus Friday night
Western Michigan University freshmen ‘rolling with the punches’ as they move in during a pandemic
"plan" - Google News
September 02, 2020 at 06:36AM
https://ift.tt/3bjr73i
Western Michigan students protest, share concerns with university’s reopening plan - mlive.com
"plan" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2un5VYV
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Western Michigan students protest, share concerns with university’s reopening plan - mlive.com"
Post a Comment