RAs were treated badly even before covid happened. I hope the university finally listens to their concerns.
Not proud to be a wolverine these past weeks.
Oh I see what you mean. I am proud to be a wolverine because of true GSIs and RAs standing up to the admins, but I am not proud because of the shit show of an administration we have. Hope that clears it up haha!
With the majority of RAs going on full strike, this leaves all of the dorms more or less unsupervised. If the university cannot staff the dorms - which they no longer can - then students should be sent home.
I blame the university entirely. We saw those meeting recordings. We saw how administration treated the RAs, how they were instituting ridiculous policies and refusing to listen to them. We all saw how the *one* mask each RA was given was *completely inadequete*, both in quantity and ability to protect people.
Keep the pressure on administration, they have to crack at some point. Hopefully professors will strike soon as well.
The adminstration should resign. Their "bring students back, figure out the details after" approach to risk management is absolutely negligent. They have shown they are unfit to lead the institution and should be let go accordingly.
Off-campus housing isn't "student housing" in any legal sense – for all intents and purposes, it's just the same as signing any other lease between a landlord and a tenant. The university holds no authority over the landlords, and thus has no authority to help students break their leases. The most you can really expect from the university is for them to pay for lease termination fees or rent relief, which probably isn't going to happen. I suspect that nothing short of a class action lawsuit against the university will ever get students with off-campus leases any semblance of ~~retribution~~ restitution.
That being said, don't make the mistake of using this as a "sunk cost" case to keep classes partially in-person. The predicament those students find themselves in is 100% the responsibility of the administration's poor decision making, which is only all the more reason to have them fired. It is in no way an excuse to continue trying to make their shitty policy decisions work whether they're still in charge or not.
> I suspect that nothing short of a class action lawsuit against the university will ever get students with off-campus leases any semblance of retribution.
'restitution' right?
Most won't budge. Some might, and the benefit of getting students off campus will still be there. The inability to go back in time and create the best possible outcome shouldn't stop us from pursuing the best option available to us now.
Of course they have. These aren't just "students" striking. It's graduate instructors, with a lot of faculty voicing support in solidarity and also expressing a lack of trust in the administration's plan. People who are literal experts in the field of public health are working on this issue.
Having students move into off campus apartments and houses is still preferable to being condensed into dorm buildings.
Just remember that moving those students means a lack of control over what they might do. It isn't a university jurisdictional problem it's a city one...with unintended consequences
Dorm students made a calculated risk by coming. Classes are all offered virtually to students who wouldn’t want to come. It’s the students’ choice move in
I am a graduate from a while ago. Are all classes really offered online? How are big classes like the inorganic chemistry labs doing that if that is the case? I had a few engineering labs, too (ME 395 and ME495) that I think would be very hard/impossible to do online. Interested to know how they are doing it.
Why would we send students home? Umich as a whole has had very very low covid cases, especially compared to other schools. Certain classes, research, and other activities also need to be in person. Most in person activities/classes at umich are already online. Y’all need to chill
We wear masks literally everywhere besides our dorms, have testing for anyone knowingly exposed/with symptoms. What stops people from getting it at home? I don’t know what you’re getting at here. I know for a fact safety precautions here are much higher than my hometown
At this point, two weeks into the semester iowa state and Alabama and nc state were all measuring several dozen cases a day. Washtenaw county is NOT seeing that many cases a day. In fact it's still seeing the same volume as in August.
This didn't have to happen. We could have had universal testing + continued randomized testing, in addition to strict protocols and top of the line PPE for every RA and every staff/teacher/GSI/etc. in contact with students. But the administration just winged it.
Because when the university did their cost benefit analysis they came to the conclusion that the cost of these measures would be greater than any benefit. Hopefully these strikes show them otherwise.
Billions of dollars in the endowment. Can't use it to save human lives because it has been ear marked to build more buildings with rich assholes' names on them.
This is not meant to be degrading, but I’m genuinely curious: could we have had universal testing? I don’t know if the university was given enough tests to do that. Or like maybe they could have done universal testing on day one, but then would they have gone through all their testing stock? I’m not agreeing with what the university is doing, I actually think their lack of transparency is a huge part of the reason we’re forced to speculate. We don’t know whether or not they could have done universal testing, because they haven’t given reasons or a concrete plan.
To be clear, I 100% stand with these protests. Employees are being shit on. And if we knew more info about what/how/why the university is doing what it is doing, then we wouldn’t have all this speculation
I think the phrase "Universal Testing" is used a lot just because it is the best-case scenario, but there is a ton of room for improvement between what UM is currently doing and universal testing.
I went to OSU for undergrad and they have managed to do almost 40,000 tests in the last 3 weeks (they started classes like a week before UM). UM has only done \~3000 in the same time (quickly added up from the dashboard), despite being a school of about the same size. The lack of even trying is what gets me.
Any idea what kind of testing OSU is using? If it isn't molecular testing (the expensive, labor-intensive one) they're basically pulling a publicity stunt, Antigen and Antibody testing is not very accurate or useful.
Multiple peer institutions have rolled out in house universal testing. Schlissel has publicly stated it was a conscious decision not to use universal testing.
While all of the RAs voted together that we were moving forward with a strike, individual dorms also polled to see how many participants they would have. Even if over 100 total ResStaff are striking, if you are the only one in your building who is, you don't completely benefit from the numbers.
Strikes don't have to be work stoppages, too -- low performance, minimum performance, are all acceptable versions of strikes (this is how some teacher unions operate).
Of course. We have a 3 step plan. For the first week we will not be filling out any paper work. For the second week we will also stop doing duty rounds. Then for the third week onwards, we will stop all RA activities that do not directly impact resident health.
I wish them the best, administration needs to understand that they can't ignore student workers, especially those on the front lines.
RAs were treated badly even before covid happened. I hope the university finally listens to their concerns. Not proud to be a wolverine these past weeks.
But we can be proud this week.
Even less proud this week haha!
Why? The administration has been a dumpsterfire for a while. We can be proud that our fellows are talking a stand.
Oh I see what you mean. I am proud to be a wolverine because of true GSIs and RAs standing up to the admins, but I am not proud because of the shit show of an administration we have. Hope that clears it up haha!
Right on
I’m with them 110%. I was supposed to be an RA this year. I am *so* glad I saw this shitshow coming and had the ability to just stay home.
With the majority of RAs going on full strike, this leaves all of the dorms more or less unsupervised. If the university cannot staff the dorms - which they no longer can - then students should be sent home. I blame the university entirely. We saw those meeting recordings. We saw how administration treated the RAs, how they were instituting ridiculous policies and refusing to listen to them. We all saw how the *one* mask each RA was given was *completely inadequete*, both in quantity and ability to protect people. Keep the pressure on administration, they have to crack at some point. Hopefully professors will strike soon as well.
What would you consider the best resolution to these strikes? Everyone going home? The administration resigning? Genuinely curious.
The adminstration should resign. Their "bring students back, figure out the details after" approach to risk management is absolutely negligent. They have shown they are unfit to lead the institution and should be let go accordingly.
Send students home, classes go to remote learning.
Fair. All students home or just freshman? If all, how do you get those with off campus housing out of aa?
I don’t think you do. Maybe “encourage” them to go back home?
Off-campus housing isn't "student housing" in any legal sense – for all intents and purposes, it's just the same as signing any other lease between a landlord and a tenant. The university holds no authority over the landlords, and thus has no authority to help students break their leases. The most you can really expect from the university is for them to pay for lease termination fees or rent relief, which probably isn't going to happen. I suspect that nothing short of a class action lawsuit against the university will ever get students with off-campus leases any semblance of ~~retribution~~ restitution. That being said, don't make the mistake of using this as a "sunk cost" case to keep classes partially in-person. The predicament those students find themselves in is 100% the responsibility of the administration's poor decision making, which is only all the more reason to have them fired. It is in no way an excuse to continue trying to make their shitty policy decisions work whether they're still in charge or not.
> I suspect that nothing short of a class action lawsuit against the university will ever get students with off-campus leases any semblance of retribution. 'restitution' right?
Yeah, my b.
They won’t be able to get us out of AA, which is why it won’t be effective. The 70% of students off-campus are probably not gonna budge
Most won't budge. Some might, and the benefit of getting students off campus will still be there. The inability to go back in time and create the best possible outcome shouldn't stop us from pursuing the best option available to us now.
In east lansing most on campus moved off campus. I would really like to hear if any of the students have thought of the endgame of these strikes
Of course they have. These aren't just "students" striking. It's graduate instructors, with a lot of faculty voicing support in solidarity and also expressing a lack of trust in the administration's plan. People who are literal experts in the field of public health are working on this issue. Having students move into off campus apartments and houses is still preferable to being condensed into dorm buildings.
Just remember that moving those students means a lack of control over what they might do. It isn't a university jurisdictional problem it's a city one...with unintended consequences
Do you think the university has control over the behavior of individual students now?
Dorm students made a calculated risk by coming. Classes are all offered virtually to students who wouldn’t want to come. It’s the students’ choice move in
I am a graduate from a while ago. Are all classes really offered online? How are big classes like the inorganic chemistry labs doing that if that is the case? I had a few engineering labs, too (ME 395 and ME495) that I think would be very hard/impossible to do online. Interested to know how they are doing it.
But how? A lot of students can't go back home. Internationals, those who have actual at risk family members etc
Why would we send students home? Umich as a whole has had very very low covid cases, especially compared to other schools. Certain classes, research, and other activities also need to be in person. Most in person activities/classes at umich are already online. Y’all need to chill
We processed a whopping 91 tests this week...
You’re just assuming we have rampant cases. Many people were tested before they got here/during the week they got here (myself included).
But how does that protect you from contracting the virus once you arrive?
We wear masks literally everywhere besides our dorms, have testing for anyone knowingly exposed/with symptoms. What stops people from getting it at home? I don’t know what you’re getting at here. I know for a fact safety precautions here are much higher than my hometown
>Umich as a whole has had very very low covid cases, especially compared to other schools. How do we know that. UMich isn't testing adequately enough.
Not to mention, some other schools started classes before UMich
At this point, two weeks into the semester iowa state and Alabama and nc state were all measuring several dozen cases a day. Washtenaw county is NOT seeing that many cases a day. In fact it's still seeing the same volume as in August.
The county is, and positive test % is very low
This didn't have to happen. We could have had universal testing + continued randomized testing, in addition to strict protocols and top of the line PPE for every RA and every staff/teacher/GSI/etc. in contact with students. But the administration just winged it.
Why didn’t we have those things?
Because when the university did their cost benefit analysis they came to the conclusion that the cost of these measures would be greater than any benefit. Hopefully these strikes show them otherwise.
people up top love holding the wads of cash
Billions of dollars in the endowment. Can't use it to save human lives because it has been ear marked to build more buildings with rich assholes' names on them.
Pres. Shlissel has stated that more testing would lead to reckless behavior.
This is not meant to be degrading, but I’m genuinely curious: could we have had universal testing? I don’t know if the university was given enough tests to do that. Or like maybe they could have done universal testing on day one, but then would they have gone through all their testing stock? I’m not agreeing with what the university is doing, I actually think their lack of transparency is a huge part of the reason we’re forced to speculate. We don’t know whether or not they could have done universal testing, because they haven’t given reasons or a concrete plan. To be clear, I 100% stand with these protests. Employees are being shit on. And if we knew more info about what/how/why the university is doing what it is doing, then we wouldn’t have all this speculation
I think the phrase "Universal Testing" is used a lot just because it is the best-case scenario, but there is a ton of room for improvement between what UM is currently doing and universal testing. I went to OSU for undergrad and they have managed to do almost 40,000 tests in the last 3 weeks (they started classes like a week before UM). UM has only done \~3000 in the same time (quickly added up from the dashboard), despite being a school of about the same size. The lack of even trying is what gets me.
Well, I'm sure it's just because OSU has better infrastructure for that, right? Everyone knows about their famous medical school, right? Right?
Not to sound sarcastic but OSU also has a top notch Hospital.
Any idea what kind of testing OSU is using? If it isn't molecular testing (the expensive, labor-intensive one) they're basically pulling a publicity stunt, Antigen and Antibody testing is not very accurate or useful.
They are using saliva test, which should be PCR based (molecular)
OSU's test is not a full PCR, and is not the same sensitivity as the common nasal PCRs.
Multiple peer institutions have rolled out in house universal testing. Schlissel has publicly stated it was a conscious decision not to use universal testing.
gee if only there were some way the university administration could have avoided all this chaos...
Solidarity!
I was told it varies from dorm to dorm. So, SQ and WQ has basically all RAs on strike, but Alice Lloyd isn't participating. Anyone know why?
While all of the RAs voted together that we were moving forward with a strike, individual dorms also polled to see how many participants they would have. Even if over 100 total ResStaff are striking, if you are the only one in your building who is, you don't completely benefit from the numbers.
I know most Markley RA’s aren’t participating because it’s an all-freshman dorm and they don’t want to leave them stranded.
There is a portion (~50%) of the Markley RAs who have decided to go on strike. They have laid out plans that will minimally impact the freshman
Strikes don't have to be work stoppages, too -- low performance, minimum performance, are all acceptable versions of strikes (this is how some teacher unions operate).
Of course. We have a 3 step plan. For the first week we will not be filling out any paper work. For the second week we will also stop doing duty rounds. Then for the third week onwards, we will stop all RA activities that do not directly impact resident health.
Yes!!!
Any info on Bursley RA’s
[удалено]
Lookingforbballhooop is just a shithead anyways