Thursday, May 14, 2020
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
inside
‘U’ students start petition demanding new Title IX regulations
NEWS
GEO petition GEO demands more support for graduate students during pandemic >> SEE PAGE 3
OPINION
University community calls for written statement of agreement by June 1
Standing her ground Whitmer’s strong stance in the face of protesters >> SEE PAGE 5 Design by Maggie Wiebe
ARTS
Boyfriend Country Country music’s next trend is bland, sugary and generic >> SEE PAGE 6
MICHIGAN IN COLOR
Outdated America
Aakash Ray analyzes the failed institution that has created the American system >> SEE PAGE 8
SPORTS
Leadership
Through tragedy, Ambry Thomas became the leader his team needed >> SEE PAGE 12
INDEX Vol. CXXIX, No. 113 © 2020 The Michigan Daily
NEWS .................................... 2 OPINION ............................... 4 ARTS/NEWS..........................6 MiC......................................... 8 SPORTS................................ 10
michigandaily.com
City or suburb, mental health impacted by lengthy quarantine SARAH PAYNE AND MAGDALENA MIHAYLOVA Summer News Editor and For The Daily
For the last two months, Business senior Ben Lindau has not seen anyone except his two brothers and parents. He was studying abroad in Stockholm, Sweden, when the University of Michigan canceled all study abroad programs and President Donald Trump declared a suspension of all travel from Europe to the United States, except for Americans who had “undergone appropriate screenings.” According to Lindau, he feared he would be stuck abroad, so he flew home the next day. Back in his hometown of Chicago which, like many areas of the country, was under a stayat-home order, Lindau’s life was confined to the compact apartment that his family had recently moved into. Over the past two months, Lindau said he has only left his family’s apartment five times, to “go stand outside for 30 minutes.” But he acknowledged that even doing so posed a risk to his
health. “We do have a park we can go to, but in walking there, everything’s so congested that you’re passing a ton of people,” Lindau said. “You’re definitely in close proximity with a lot of people, so it’s difficult to keep the social distance.” Chicago’s Lakefront Trail, which borders Lindau’s home, has been closed since late March. From his living room window, Lindau said he can see the unoccupied patches of green grass that face a crystal blue Lake Michigan. He said the lake is a sad reminder that he is stuck inside. “That took away pretty much all of the green space I could use,” Lindau said. “Because they closed down that whole lakefront, I feel like there’s simply nowhere to go.” Dr. Srijan Sen, an associate professor of psychiatry and molecular and behavioral neuroscience at the University, studies the connections between genes, environment and stress. He commented on the strain that a global pandemic and quarantine can have on one’s mental health. “It’s a really unusual time for
mental health,” Sen said. “We’re still gathering data, but clearly we see a big increase in anxiety and depression, and depending on the situations, loneliness and social isolation.” Where someone lives, who they live with and how they approach stressful situations all inform their mental health during the pandemic and quarantine, according to Sen. He noted that it’s a largely individualized response. “It’s a difficult time broadly across all of us in the world at this point,” Sen said. “But it’s definitely going to hit different people differently based on their own situations and personal histories and predispositions.” Sen said a student stuck inside in a city can be equally as stressed as a student living in an area with lots of nature, but with a strained family relationship. “What your family life is like — for some people it’s a source of comfort, others it’s a source of stress — that really is going to affect the experience of unexpectedly being back home,” Sen said. “There’s socioeconomic components to
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CLAIRE HAO
Daily News Editor
More than 300 University of Michigan community members have signed a petition regarding the University’s sexual misconduct policy following last week’s newly released Department of Education Title IX regulations. The petition has seven specific demands about investigation time limits, evidentiary standards, processes to resolve off-campus assault and more. The petition was created by LSA senior Morgan McCaul, a sister survivor and sexual violence prevention advocate, alongside student-run non-profit Roe v. Rape, a survivor empowerment organization. They are asking University administration to agree to commit to their demands in a written statement before June 1. In a previous Daily article, University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald wrote it will take time to understand how these new regulations will affect University policy. Fitzgerald reiterated this sentiment when asked whether University administration plans to consider the petition’s demands. “We are not able to share anything further until we have a clear understanding of the impact of these new regulations across several U-M policies,” Fitzgerald wrote. The new regulations, announced last Wednesday by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, come after her department rescinded Obamaera guidelines in 2017. According to
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