Coronavirus Communications

University leaders discuss winter COVID situation at town hall

lblouin — Mon, 17 Jan 2022 14:04:02 +0000

University leaders discuss winter COVID situation at town hall lblouin Mon, 01/17/2022 - 09:04

With the arrival of the Omicron variant, winter 2022 is starting to feel a lot like winter 2021. Case rates are at the highest point of the pandemic. Masks are again part of our daily lives and many of us are even upping our masking game. And we’re again confused about what kinds of activities can be done safely and which are best to forgo until the surge subsides. To help get some clarity on the winter COVID situation — including what it means for life at ��-Dearborn — university leaders recently hosted a town hall with special guest Dr. Preeti Malani, U-M’s chief health officer. We’ve summarized some of the takeaways below, or you can watch the full one-hour event on the university YouTube channel.

Winter 2022 is not winter 2021

While some COVID déjà vu is understandable, there are some significant differences between winter ‘21 and winter ‘22. A year ago, vaccines were just becoming available to very limited groups; today we have a student vaccination rate of 84 percent (88 percent for Winter 2022 students with an in-person or hybrid class), and 95 percent for both faculty and staff. We know that with a booster, which the university is now requiring under its vaccination policy, we’re still well protected against serious disease. We have an on-campus clinic where students, faculty and staff can get a free COVID test or booster. We have the more effective KN95 and surgical masks available for easy pickup at multiple sites on campus. And we have a campus community that’s still doing a great job masking up, social distancing, and embracing an ethic that we’re all in this together. In other words, we have some really powerful — and according to the public health experts, adequate — tools for controlling viral spread and limiting serious illness. For these reasons, university leaders made the decision to continue with their plan for in-person learning this semester. “At the most, we have 1,250 students on campus at any one time, we have great ventilation systems, everyone is wearing a mask, we’re requiring boosters, so we are in a very safe cocoon on this campus,” Chancellor Domenico Grasso said at the town hall. Of course, university leaders are intensely monitoring the situation and have contingency plans in place should conditions change. But with low cases among students, so far, so good.

How Omicron is — and isn’t — changing things

Every stage of the pandemic teaches us new things about the virus and how we can respond. This summer and fall, during the Delta surge, so-called breakthrough cases among fully vaccinated people made up a relatively small share of cases, which gave fully vaccinated folks a path for returning to relative normalcy. Once booster shots became available, the outlook looked even better. But Omicron has abruptly changed the calculus in some ways. “What we’re learning is that getting infected or even vaccinated does not guarantee long-term immunity,” Dr. Malani said. “With Omicron, in particular, the vaccines are not 100 percent protective, but boosters do help that protection.” With this realization comes a shift from thinking about vaccines as protection against infection to protection against serious disease. “This vaccine was so incredibly effective that, in a way, we were spoiled,” Malani said. “But if you think about the flu vaccine, it makes the disease less severe. So you don’t prevent every infection, you prevent illness. So if I [am vaccinated and] get COVID, I’m not going to die of COVID. I might be inconvenienced for a few days. I think this is where we’re headed when we talk about endemicity. We’re not going to have life without COVID. But vaccination remains essential to making this a mild disease.”

Masking

Because the vaccines aren’t as protective against an Omicron infection, Dr. Malani says masking is again becoming a crucial part of keeping everyone safe. Here at ��-Dearborn, we require masking indoors, with a few exceptions, like when you’re eating or alone in an enclosed private office. And Malani says masking is still really important for protecting folks in your life who can’t get the vaccine yet, like children under five. It’s also probably a good idea to start wearing a better mask. Malani says cloth masks still offer some protection, but if you’re going to be spending prolonged periods of time indoors, you’re going to want to reach for a surgical mask, KN95 or N95. The Omicron variant is simply much more contagious, and both surgical and KN95/N95 masks carry an electrostatic charge that helps them filter out tiny particles. You can grab surgical masks for free in all of the deans offices, at the University Center information desk, the testing and vaccination clinic, the ELB advising office, the Facilities Operations reception area, and at Human Resources in the Administration Building. Free KN95 masks are available at the University Center testing and vaccination clinic or the Information Desk. By the way, the CDC recommends discarding KN95 or N95 masks after five uses.

Be kind, be flexible

By now, we’re all pros at rolling with the punches, but many university leaders pointed out that continued flexibility will be key for getting through the next few weeks and months. If a student tests positive and can’t come to class for a week or more, faculty can be more flexible with deadlines and spend a little extra time making sure a student doesn’t fall behind. Likewise, if a faculty member needs to switch to teaching online for a week or more, students need to roll with the change in schedule. If a staff member gets sick or has a sick kid at home, supervisors can work with them to make sure they feel supported and can get back to work as quickly as possible. “We’re trying to do everything we can to make this a welcoming place so students can get the great education that we’re known for — and keep everyone safe,” Grasso said.

###

You can watch the full January 13 Town Hall event on the university’s YouTube channel.

Coronavirus Communications

University-wide

Off

Mon, 01/17/2022 - 14:00

U-M’s Chief Health Officer talked about why she’s optimistic that in-person learning is a safe bet at ��-Dearborn, even during the Omicron surge.

High vaccination rates and an indoor masking policy have made it possible to continue in-person learning this semester.

How the pandemic experience is pushing teaching into the future

lblouin — Mon, 11 Oct 2021 13:54:31 +0000

How the pandemic experience is pushing teaching into the future lblouin Mon, 10/11/2021 - 09:54

You can’t say that Associate Professor of Statistics Keshav Pokhrel’s transformation of his statistics courses was completely a pandemic thing. Pre-pandemic, he was already interested in changing up his teaching approach, especially in his intro statistics classes, which always brought in lots of non-math and non-statistics majors. Getting students to be genuinely interested in the subject was the core challenge, one that inspired lots of hallway conversations with colleagues, student feedback sessions, and some meetings with instructional designers at the Hub. Then the pandemic hit. And while he hadn’t had a chance to implement many changes yet, by that time, he was conceptually fluent enough in new teaching techniques to see that his traditional formula of lectures, homework, quizzes and exams was likely going to fall flat in a remote format.

Initially, he started with recorded lectures, following one of the Hub’s main suggestions to break the videos into short, easily digestible segments. But the real breakthrough came after a conversation with a colleague, who pointed him to a student-focused New York Times feature called “What’s Going on in This Graph?” The Times' graphs and data visualizations focused on all kinds of subjects, from COVID trends to global economics to sports. But the thing Pokhrel really loved was the type of questions the authors paired with the graphs. “It was always very general, like, ‘what do you find interesting about this graph?’ Or, ‘what does it make you wonder about?’” he says. “The beauty of that is you don’t need any advanced mathematical background to answer a question like that."

Pokhrel decided he’d throw something similar at his students. One of the first was a dynamic U.S. population pyramid graph, an intriguing data set that prompts important socio-economic questions about aging baby boomers and today’s declining birth rates. He then asked his students to write about what they found personally interesting in the graphs, and he was blown away by their responses. “It was just intended to be a five or 10-point discussion post assignment,” Pokhrel remembers. “But they’d write pages and pages and they were commenting on each other's posts.” He tried again with other themes — the relationship between GDP and poverty, criminal justice, basketball. Again, he got these highly engaged responses. “And that’s when I started thinking, what if I made this my whole class? Like, what if I made my course project-based, instead of ‘remember this math, and put this formula here’? I became convinced that I had to connect the material to things that felt relevant to them.”

He began writing projects for his students — a time consuming but enjoyable task — and ultimately reorganized his course around a series of 10 of them. Now, the majority of the actual work his students do in the intro course isn’t formula-based statistics. It’s writing, interpretation and analysis of huge data sets. “Rather than asking them to memorize how to calculate a standard deviation, the focus was, ‘what does that standard deviation mean?’” Pokhrel explains. “My feeling was that if this is the only statistics course they ever take, they likely aren’t going to remember all the math. But I can teach them how to conceptually interpret and analyze data, and that’s something they can use in their lives and future careers.”

Not that Pokhrel has totally abandoned the math part. Statistics is a very quantitative discipline, and even if his students don’t memorize every formula, it’s important for them to understand conceptually how statistical computations work. That’s why he still has one assignment per week that requires some math done by hand, the old-fashioned way. And they spend a lot of time learning modern statistics software, which lets the computers do the complicated computations, but teaches students how to organize and model data in ways that reveal what it all means.

This approach has worked exceedingly well in his intro courses, but Pokhrel has also been inspired to similarly reorganize his upper-level courses. At the beginning of the semester, he posts six to nine projects from a diverse range of subjects, and then lets the students choose one that they’ll work on the whole semester. Teams of three self-organize based on interest. And then they basically start digging into their data sets, with the projects broken down into two mid-semester “mini-projects” so he can check their progress. A final presentation and 15-page report, worth about 25 percent of their grade, replace the traditional final exam. Notably, in his upper-level courses, the students are doing a lot more computational and advanced software work. But as in his intro classes, the context is real-world problems and relevant applications of theoretical concepts. The result is his students are way more engaged.

In a necessity-is-the-mother-of-invention kind of way, Pokhrel says the pandemic definitely accelerated changes in his teaching approach that otherwise would have taken him years. And he personally enjoys this version of his course so much more, though he notes that compared to grading quizzes, it is more work for him to review individual, often lengthy, examples of student analysis. (He’s not going to argue, though, with the fact that his students are so engaged they’re actually “overdoing” assignments.) He also finds that, particularly in a totally asynchronous format, he has to watch out a bit more for students getting hung up on certain concepts. “If they get stuck on something, it can really set them back. It’s like a virus. It’s small, but it can have a big impact.” His remedy is to make sure they have ample access to him during office hours and quickie Zoom sessions, where he can usually help get a student over the hump in “just a couple minutes.” Then it’s back to the action of a dynamic statistics course that’s so much more fun than it was before.

###

Story by Lou Blouin. Are you a faculty member who also has a story about how you've grown your teaching style or redesigned a course during the pandemic? If so, we'd love to hear about it. Drop us a line at ��Dearborn-News@umich.edu.

Coronavirus

Coronavirus Communications

Faculty and Staff

Opinion or Voices

Teaching Resource

College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

Mathematics and Statistics

Off

Mon, 10/11/2021 - 13:40

A ��-Dearborn statistics professor shares how the sudden shift to remote education pushed him to make his statistics classes more relevant to students.

A colorful graphic featuring a headshot of statistics professor Keshav Pokhrel surrounded by charts, arrows, stick figure drawings and other statistics icons.

What Research Surrounding COVID Vaccination Ethics Tells Us

stuxbury — Mon, 20 Sep 2021 14:04:39 +0000

What Research Surrounding COVID Vaccination Ethics Tells Us stuxbury Mon, 09/20/2021 - 10:04

There’s a global pandemic. And scientists have found a solution to overcoming it.

But the COVID-19 vaccine, even when the nation's top immunologist says it’s safe and effective, isn’t receiving the acceptance needed to overcome the contagious respiratory virus.

To explore vaccine hesitancy and the ethics surrounding vaccination, Philosophy Assistant Professor Kriszta Sajber and Health and Human Services major Sarah Khaleefah are working side by side on vaccine-related research projects.

“Vaccination ethics answers questions that look deeper than the efficacy of the vaccine, questions that many of us have,” says Khaleefah, who recently gave an update on their work during the campus’ 2021 Summer Undergraduate Research Experience Showcase.

Their research uses premises based on the scientific findings of epidemiologists, immunologists and virologists and seeks answers to greater questions about what is valuable, beneficial and significant for human communities when it comes to COVID vaccination.

When enough people have immunity against the coronavirus, we reach the stage at which individuals susceptible to an infection become indirectly protected from the virus. This is called herd immunity: virus spread would slow and it would benefit everyone. Not only those who were vaccinated, but those who cannot obtain immunity through vaccination would be better protected, including the immunocompromised and children under the age of 12.

So it’s important to ask the question, “If we know the conditions under which we can create herd immunity, what actions are ethical to take for each of us individually?,” Sajber said. “When people approach this from their individual perspective, they tend to forget that the ‘herd’ can also come together to protect the individual.”

The ��-Dearborn researchers say philosophical research can help people find clarity in complicated situations and any concerns about the ethics of vaccination can be sorted out by looking at the logic of the arguments.

For example, if someone says that it is their right to refuse a vaccine, ethicists begin with the facts — not opinions or emotional reactions — to examine the claim.

“There are documented cases in which one person’s decision to refuse the coronavirus vaccine was the proven cause of coronavirus outbreaks in a nursing home or in family settings leading to deaths or severe illness among vaccinated individuals,” Sajber says.

With that known, Sajber works through the right-to-refuse argument. “When someone medically eligible with access to vaccinations does not accept a vaccine, they reserve to themselves the right to harm others. However, no one has the right to harm others. People do harm others from time to time, but we cannot say that this is their right. Therefore, from an ethical perspective, no one has a ‘right’ to refuse a vaccine. As a medical ethicist, my job is to examine the logic behind a claim like this.”

Sajber said her work isn’t meant to be overly demanding when it comes to vaccination — it’s to help people recognize that there are processes and tools out there to help make sense of our roles in limiting the damage of the coronavirus.

Khaleefah, a junior who plans to have a career in medicine, says she’s personally seen how complicated the issue of vaccination can be. There are discussions occurring at her mosque and in her family both for and against the COVID-19 vaccine.

“Religion is a huge part of my life. (Religious) scholars in my community are advocating for vaccines. But some people are still refusing to vaccinate,” she says. “Upon further investigation through interviews and literature review, I’ve learned that people are genuinely confused, scared, misinformed or haven’t found the answers they are looking for in order to opt in to vaccination. The answers are out and there are people who will listen, but not if you judge what they are feeling or make it about you. From either perspective (for or against), it’s not an individual issue, it’s a collective one.”

For Khaleefah’s research contribution, she’s combined contemporary scholarship in public health ethics with sources on the healthcare-related obligations implicit in the religious worldview of Islam. Her goal? To demonstrate the potential of a religiously-grounded vaccination ethics to assist with patient outreach, improve healthcare provider-patient relationships, and promote individual health and well-being in culturally and religiously diverse communities.

“I am grateful to have had this research experience. Dr. Sajber’s guidance is preparing me to go out and serve my community to the best of my ability.”

Khaleefah — who stood out as an outstanding student in Sajber’s Medical Ethics (PHIL 442/HHS 442) course and was later approached to take part in this research endeavor — is continuing her work with Sajber into the Fall 2021 semester. She wants healthcare professionals to understand the cultural viewpoint of Muslim patients because cultural literacy helps develop stronger patient-physician relationship and creates better health outcomes.

Sajber said the research Khaleefah’s done on campus will help guide her as she continues her path toward medical school and serving in the healthcare field.

“Sarah is passionate about healthcare and has learned how to develop informed, logically organized, conceptually nuanced and meticulously developed answers to complicated questions,” Sajber said. “Philosophy trains its practitioners to use the logical tools available to clarify bold questions and to apply their rational faculties to submit them to analysis. Medical schools are interested in people with this training because it shows that students are prepared to meet life’s challenges in the broadest possible sense of the term.”

Khaleefah says understanding vaccine ethics also helps us make sense of the vaccine policies and mandates we are beginning to see.

“If a person doesn't understand the ethics of vaccination, they might feel like a decision was unjust, even though it was the best decision for the group and we actually have a moral obligation to protect others,” Khaleefah says. “This research is very relevant and extremely important as we see science attempt to battle more and more infectious diseases with vaccines.”

With all of the divisive confusion about our role in overcoming the pandemic, Sajber says there’s one thing a worldwide virus has made abundantly clear: a newly apparent biological interdependence that characterizes humanity as a whole. The world would be a better place if we’d unite and fight the pandemic instead of each other.

“When I engage with people about vaccine hesitancy, many times their argument is aimed at denying what was revealed so painfully by the pandemic: the biological interdependence that inevitably ties us together. People want to make an individual choice or have autonomy,” she said. “But our vulnerability to have our bodies taken over and used by a virus is the very definition of not being autonomous. Getting vaccinated is, in fact, one of the few choices we have available to free ourselves from the lack of moral or personal agency that the pandemic forced upon us.”

Article by Sarah Tuxbury. If you are a member of the media and would like more information about “The Ethics of COVID Vaccination” research project, contact ��DearbornNews@umich.edu.

Coronavirus

Coronavirus Communications

Research

Undergraduate Research

College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

Social Sciences

College of Education, Health, and Human Services

Office of Research

Talent Gateway

Off

Mon, 09/20/2021 - 14:03

Campus researchers explore complex questions regarding COVID vaccination during a Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) project.

Graphic showing The Ethics of COVID researchers Philosophy Assistant Professor Kriszta Sajber and Health and Human Services major Sarah Khaleefah

Takeaways from the September 16 town hall

lblouin — Mon, 20 Sep 2021 12:52:00 +0000

Takeaways from the September 16 town hall lblouin Mon, 09/20/2021 - 08:52

The opening weeks of the fall semester have provided a much welcomed jolt of optimism on the ��-Dearborn campus. In a big change from last fall, around 80 percent of students are enrolled in at least one in-person credit. The latest student vaccination numbers look really good (details below). And we’ve had a very small number of COVID cases and no widespread outbreaks. The high spirits were definitely palpable at a Thursday afternoon town hall, where campus leaders shared their thoughts about the start of the Fall 2021 semester and answered your questions. If you missed it, you can view the full video. Or keep reading for some of the main takeaways.

The latest vaccine and compliance numbers look really good

Good news just keeps rolling in about student vaccination rates. Two weeks ago, we reported that almost 66 percent of all students had submitted records documenting full vaccination and had them verified, with that number rising to 72 percent for those with an in-person class. Now, the overall student vaccination rate stands at 80 percent — and 87 percent for students with a face-to-face class. When you include students who have an approved religious or medical exemption, we’re looking at 96 percent overall compliance with the vaccine policy for students with at least one in-person class. Dean of Students Amy Finley says the university has a “small army” of people who are still calling and emailing students to try to assist those not yet in compliance. That’s a big deal because as of September 17, students who remain out of compliance will be moved to an online section of their in-person classes (if one is available), or administratively withdrawn from the course and issued a tuition reimbursement. Also, we shouldn’t fail to mention that faculty and staff vaccination rates are great too: For staff it’s 87 percent, for faculty it’s 85 percent overall, and 95 percent for tenure-track faculty.

The plan for the rest of fall (and winter)

The end of the drop/add period last Wednesday means that students and faculty should be able to settle into their routines this week. As of Monday, the testing and vaccine clinic will now be open just on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for students, faculty and staff who need their weekly test. Door screening is also scheduled to end after Friday, though it may continue for a little bit longer in a few locations, like the Mardigian Library. Should COVID cases arise on campus, the university is following the same reporting, contact tracing and quarantining protocols it’s been using all along. But because of the high vaccination rates and high compliance with the mask policy, it’s likely any COVID cases on campus will result in fewer students, faculty and staff needing to quarantine. “The CDC says that those who are both masked and vaccinated do not need to quarantine in the event they are exposed to a COVID-positive person,” Dean of Students Amy Finley explained during the town hall. Chancellor Grasso also said there’s no “magic number” for a COVID situation that could trigger a full shift to remote course delivery, though the university does have contingency plans for that. Grasso said that decision would be based on a variety of factors, including trends, the positivity rates among vaccinated people, hospitalization rates, changing variants, the efficacy of vaccines and advice from medical experts within the U-M system.

Campus leaders are also looking ahead to the winter semester, and we should have more details about the winter plan in a few weeks when the course schedules are due. As with fall, the demand for in-person classes is strong among students, so Interim Provost Gabriella Scarlatta says the goal is to have about 60 percent of courses offered in-person, up from this semester’s 50 percent.

Other good-to-knows

Fall 2021 enrollment numbers were stronger than expected. Because of the ongoing pandemic and a decline among community college transfers, the university was budgeting for an 8 percent decline in enrollment. Final enrollment numbers won’t be available until later this week, but it appears the decline was smaller than expected. However, enrollment among FTIAC students (First Time in Any College) was up compared to Fall 2020.
Chancellor Grasso announced that he is working with Henry Ford College President Russell Kavalhuna on a new partnership modeled after successful collaborations between peer four-year universities and community colleges. Expect details on that soon.
Having trouble with your internet signal outside? Your WiFi woes could end soon. ITS Director Carrie Shumaker says there are plans to install “pervasive Wifi” all across campus, including parking lots. Facilities and ITS teams are standing by pending the delivery of a few final pieces of essential tech, which has been delayed because of the ongoing chip shortage.

###

Want more details from the September 16 Town Hall? You can watch the full video.

Coronavirus Communications

University-wide

Off

Mon, 09/20/2021 - 12:51

Campus leaders shared the latest vaccination numbers, enrollment news and observations from the first few weeks of the fall semester.

Metallic rooftops shine in a drone view of the ��-Dearborn campus on a late summer day in 2021.

What you need to know about the university’s vaccine requirement compliance plan

lblouin — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 12:48:45 +0000

What you need to know about the university’s vaccine requirement compliance plan lblouin Tue, 08/31/2021 - 08:48

One of the big open questions heading into the fall term has been what happens if students, faculty and staff fail to comply with the university’s vaccination policy. Last Tuesday, university leaders gave us the answer in a detailed policy that also includes possible implications for the fall semester. To help you sift through it, we’ve broken down some of the key points, and you can get all the details in this communication from Chancellor Grasso. This video also summarizes all the important health and safety measures we’re using this fall, so check it out if you need a refresher.

The student policy

Student vaccination rates continue to be the biggest cause for uncertainty heading into the fall semester. As of Monday, Aug. 30, about 50% have submitted their vaccination records — a significant increase from the 39% reported last week. So here’s what will happen starting with the first day of classes on Sept. 1 for students enrolled in in-person or hybrid courses. (The policy is different for fully remote students; keep reading for that.) Door screeners will check vaccination policy compliance at building entrances, and students who are not in compliance will have to go to an on-campus testing location or provide proof of a negative COVID test. These tests will be required daily for anyone out of compliance (those without an accepted medical or religious exemption), and as long as a student has a negative result in the ResponsiBlue app, they will be allowed to continue their courses through Sept. 17. However, after that, students still out of compliance will be moved to an online section of their classes, if it’s available. If there aren’t any spots left, the student will be administratively withdrawn from the course and issued a tuition reimbursement. Students with an approved medical or religious exemption will still have to provide proof of a weekly negative COVID test to be on campus.

Fully remote students out of compliance with the vaccine policy now have an option of signing an attestation form stating they will not come to campus during the Fall 2021 semester. They will still have full access to online library resources, but will have their MCards deactivated. Students who violate this policy and come to campus after signing an attestation form will be charged with a non-academic conduct violation.

The faculty and staff policy

Vaccination rates among faculty and staff look much better, with about 74% of faculty and 82% of staff reporting their vaccination status as of Monday, Aug. 30. (This number, which is reduced from what was reported last week, now includes LEO lecturers on layoff and short-work break status.) For those out of compliance on that date, here’s what the two-step disciplinary measures will look like. First: A verbal warning, plus a request to talk with a public health counselor to try to resolve any questions someone has about the vaccine. Then, after a period of at least seven days, if someone is still not in compliance, the faculty or staff member will receive a written warning and face other forms of discipline. This could include ineligibility for a FY23 merit pay increase; restricted access to professional development and other funds; a one to three-day unpaid disciplinary layoff; delays in sabbaticals; loss of summer teaching hours; or ineligibility for university honorific recognition and awards.

If, however, you have applied for a medical or religious exemption, and you have not received news of your status by Aug. 30 due to delays in reviewing exemptions, you will be allowed to continue on-campus work with a daily negative COVID test until your status has been decided. If your exemption request is denied, you will be required to get daily tests if you’re working on campus until you are in compliance with the policy. Faculty and staff with an approved medical or religious exemption will still have to provide proof of a weekly negative COVID test to be on campus.

Vaccination and testing clinics

The university will provide testing and vaccination clinics in Kochoff Hall through Oct. 1 for those required to submit a daily or weekly negative COVID test. Students, faculty and staff will have the option for vaccination at the testing site. Beginning Oct. 4 through the end of the fall term, only testing services will be available. Faculty, staff and students should use the Test Reporting form to submit their required negative COVID test results. They may choose to complete necessary COVID testing at the location that works best for them.

Enforcement of the masking policy

Widespread vaccines are one main prong in the plan to keep everyone safe this fall. Masking is the other. Face coverings are required inside all buildings and on-campus transportation for all faculty, staff, students and guests. You can remove your face covering if you are actively eating or drinking or when in an office by yourself with the door closed. Those in violation of the policy will be subject to the non-academic code of conduct policy (students) or human resources discipline (faculty and staff). If you happen to forget your mask, disposable face coverings will be provided at screening stations and other gathering places on campus. Luckily, we had no face covering compliance issues last year, so keep up the good work, everyone!

The bottom line

The whole purpose of the vaccination policy is to create a safe environment for in-person classes this semester. As Dr. Preeti Malani, U-M’s Chief Health Officer, explained at our recent Town Hall, a highly vaccinated, masked population faces relatively low risks from indoor, in-person interactions. Because of this, if the campus does not achieve a student vaccination rate safe enough to maintain collective health and safety, or if we experience a significant outbreak, university leaders reserve the right to pivot to a fully remote semester. U-M health officials will be advising campus leadership on that decision, should it become necessary.

###

Want more details about the enforcement policies or other information about the fall plan? Get the latest news in this communication from Chancellor Grasso.

Coronavirus

Coronavirus Communications

University-wide

Off

Tue, 08/31/2021 - 12:47

University leaders released a detailed policy last week for faculty, staff and students not in compliance with the vaccine requirement. We break it down, including how it could impact the fall semester.

Students line up at a building entrance to show their health status app screen to security staff.

Takeaways from the Aug. 11 Town Hall

lblouin — Mon, 16 Aug 2021 12:34:48 +0000

Takeaways from the Aug. 11 Town Hall lblouin Mon, 08/16/2021 - 08:34

A view of the Heinz Prechter Engineering Complex on the ��-Dearborn campus

Fall 2021 at ��-Dearborn is shaping up to be a much different semester than Fall 2020. A year ago, we had very few tools to stop the spread of COVID-19 other than masking and social distancing; now we have powerful vaccines that are safe, free, widely available and highly effective. Thankfully, that means in-person instruction is once again going to be the norm at ��-Dearborn, though with some additional policies in place to keep everyone safe and healthy. To answer questions about the plan for the fall semester, campus leaders and Dr. Preeti Malani, U-M’s Chief Health Officer, recently hosted a virtual town hall. We’ve summarized some of the big takeaways below, in case you missed it. Or, you can view the entire one-hour video.

The latest on Delta, breakthrough cases and vaccine safety

A couple months ago — or even a few weeks ago — case counts were low and it looked like things were more or less heading back to something resembling normal. So why are we now requiring face coverings and vaccinations? In a word: Delta. Malani explained that this new variant of the coronavirus is far more contagious than the original strain, and that’s driving the surge in cases that we’re seeing in Michigan and elsewhere. The vaccines offer strong protection, even against Delta, which is why the recent case surge has been almost exclusively among the unvaccinated. There have been occasional “breakthrough” cases in vaccinated people. But thankfully, if you’re vaccinated, Malani said your symptoms are likely to be much milder and you’re very unlikely to end up in a hospital. Wearing a mask indoors is still going to be important, however, because it is possible for vaccinated people to spread this more contagious strain to others.

As far as vaccine safety, here’s what Malani had to say: “Hundreds of millions of doses have been given not just in the United States but all over the world, with very small numbers of serious safety concerns, on the order of a few per million. I have members of my extended family who are still nervous and haven’t been vaccinated, so I try to come to this with a lot of humility. And even if there are still unknowns, because this hasn’t been around that long, we know a lot about COVID and there is just no question in terms of safety. Especially in this moment, I would say that broad vaccination is really our only way back to something that feels like normal...Unlike a year ago, we are not powerless against SARS-CoV-2.”

So given the risks from new variants, why don't we just stay remote?

Without a doubt, faculty, staff and students did a pretty heroic job of pivoting to remote learning when the pandemic first hit. And that was necessary primarily because keeping our distance from one another was our best way to stay safe. But things have changed in fundamental ways since last fall. First, we know a lot more about the coronavirus, how it spreads and the efficacy of masking. And most importantly, we have vaccines that are very effective at preventing severe illness. Figuring out how to live life during the pandemic has always been about managing risks and benefits of everyday activities. And this fall, unlike last fall, we have a set of tools capable of making in-person instruction a low-risk activity. “If you have a highly vaccinated, highly masked population...I’m not concerned about the safety of coming back — with the caveat that campus cannot be safer than the community,” Malani said at the town hall. “So by doing our part as members of the community, we can keep community spread in check.”

In other words, based on the current science, campus leaders have made the judgment that the benefits of in-person instruction now outweigh the risks — if everyone is vaccinated and everyone wears a face covering. “I think it’s important that we get back to an educational system that supports our students and faculty...and provides the best learning opportunity for them,” Chancellor Domenico Grasso said. “As Dr. Malani pointed out, if you’re vaccinated, you’re pretty safe; this is why we’re requiring vaccinations. And if you’re vaccinated and wearing a mask, you’re even safer.” Right now, the fall academic class schedule features in-person instruction at 62 percent of campus density. But if conditions change, the colleges have plans in place to pivot to less density or completely remote instruction. As before, any COVID infections within the campus community will be handled with a contact tracing system and quarantine measures when necessary.

So how are we going to enforce the vaccine and face covering policies?

This is one of the biggest questions for fall, and the short answer is: leadership is still working on the details. Dean of Students Amy Finley said students can expect to get the full enforcement policy soon. As stated before, students must have completed, or received at least the initial dose of, the COVID-19 vaccination and submit their proof of vaccination information no later than August 30. U-M will grant limited exemptions for valid medical and religious reasons. To be considered for a vaccination exemption, please complete the COVID-19 Vaccination Exemption Request Form. Those who are granted exemptions will be required to submit a weekly negative COVID test before being on campus. For privacy reasons, faculty will not be given student rosters that include vaccination status. However, faculty who are comfortable will be allowed to enforce the face covering policy in their classrooms under the same policies we had last fall.

Faculty and staff can also expect details about enforcement policies soon. However, ��-Dearborn Human Resources Director Rima Berry-Hung said that faculty and staff who don’t want to comply with the vaccine requirement and have not been granted an exemption will be asked to talk with a designated public health advisor to address specific vaccine questions. Folks who don’t comply with the vaccine policy or have an exemption will also be subject to “appropriate campus disciplinary procedures.” What those procedures are will be communicated soon.

Other good-to-knows

A few more notable details from the town hall:

Malani said she’s been getting lots of questions about booster shots from those who received the J&J vaccine, as some research indicates this one-shot vaccine may not be quite as effective against the Delta variant. Currently, the CDC is not recommending booster shots for J&J recipients, but she said we can likely expect some guidance on that shortly. Also, she said full FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine is likely “in the next week or two.”
The welcome back picnic for faculty and staff has been postponed.
The Hub is working on resources to aid in situations where traditional face coverings could interfere with learning. This includes things like microphones to amplify voices in the classroom, and transparent masks for language classes. Plastic face shields are not considered a substitute for masking.
You can check on our progress getting everyone vaccinated at the COVID-19 Dashboard. That data are updated every Monday.

###

Story by Lou Blouin. Watch the entire video of the Aug. 11 Town Hall event.

Coronavirus Communications

University-wide

Off

Mon, 08/16/2021 - 12:33

Campus leaders fielded questions about new policies on masking and vaccines, and shared details about the fall academic plan.

COVID-19 vaccination will be required on ��-Dearborn campus

lblouin — Fri, 30 Jul 2021 14:15:49 +0000

COVID-19 vaccination will be required on ��-Dearborn campus lblouin Fri, 07/30/2021 - 10:15

A fall exterior view of the Mardigian Library on the ��-Dearborn campus, with a blazing red maple tree in the foreground and leaves blowing over the sidewalks.

All students, faculty and staff on all three campuses of the University of Michigan are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and submit their vaccination information before the start of the fall term, university officials announced today. The vaccine requirement also applies to those working or learning remotely.

“After considerable thought, discussion and input, U-M President Mark Schlissel, ��-Flint Chancellor Deba Dutta, Michigan Medicine CEO Marschall Runge, and I, working with many others, determined that this is the best way forward for the University of Michigan community,” Domenico Grasso, ��-Dearborn chancellor, wrote in an email to campus.

University of Michigan-Dearborn leadership, Faculty and Staff Senates and Student Government were also consulted and supportive of this important decision.

The university is requiring all students, faculty and staff to do one of the following no later than Aug. 30:

● Submit proof of vaccination (partial or completed)
● Apply for a medical or religious exemption

Information about medical and religious exemptions will be shared by Aug. 4.

“As we have seen over the past 18 months, the trajectory of this pandemic continues to ebb and flow. Many organizations such as Google, the Veterans Administration and hundreds of universities across the country, including many Big Ten schools and the entire University of California and California State University systems, are mandating vaccinations,” Grasso wrote.

The COVID-19 vaccination is free, easily accessible, extremely effective and has been proven safe. ��-Dearborn will soon announce information regarding an on-campus vaccination clinic.

“Keeping Mission First and taking care of our People Always, we are well prepared for a robust and successful fall semester. As always, we will continue to monitor the state of the pandemic and make necessary changes to keep our community safe while delivering an outstanding education for our students,” Grasso wrote.

The university COVID-19 website has additional information on the vaccination requirement and the campus COVID response.

Coronavirus

Coronavirus Communications

University-wide

Off

Fri, 07/30/2021 - 14:14

Students, faculty and staff on all U-M campuses must submit vaccine information by Aug. 30.

University of Michigan-Dearborn announces innovative and flexible approach to safety for the Fall 2021 semester: COVID vaccine or testing requirement

stuxbury — Fri, 23 Apr 2021 15:21:42 +0000

University of Michigan-Dearborn announces innovative and flexible approach to safety for the Fall 2021 semester: COVID vaccine or testing requirement stuxbury Fri, 04/23/2021 - 11:21

University of Michigan-Dearborn announced an innovative approach to keeping its campus community safe this coming academic year. This fall students, faculty and staff will be required to provide either documentation of a weekly negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test or that they are fully immunized with a vaccine that has received FDA Emergency Use Authorization.

The announcement, effective September 1, 2021, applies to all students, faculty and staff that will be coming to campus for any reason. The university, which has operated in a predominantly remote capacity since March 2020, plans a robust return to campus this fall, with most classes taught fully in person or in hybrid fashion and a return of on-campus student support services, co-curricular activities and campus services.

"Throughout the pandemic the university has fulfilled its mission of educating our students, while prioritizing the health and safety of our campus community,” said Domenico Grasso, chancellor, ��-Dearborn. “This announcement allows us to move forward with our plans of a return to on-campus activities, which we know are so important for student success, while continuing to keep our campus community safe and healthy.”

Students, faculty and staff who are fully remote will not need to meet this requirement.

The leadership of the university's Faculty Senate, Staff Senate and Student Government have all endorsed this plan.

Additional details regarding how this process will be implemented and how this information will be collected and maintained will be shared with the campus community in the coming weeks. There will also be guidance ahead regarding how this policy applies to campus partners, visitors and events.

About ��-Dearborn
University of Michigan-Dearborn was founded in 1959 through an innovative partnership between the University of Michigan and Ford Motor Company, with Ford providing an initial gift of just over 200 acres of land and $6.5 million. ��-Dearborn is a regional university, committed to excellence rooted in strong academics, innovative research and scholarship, as well as accessibility and affordability. The university has nearly 8,800 students pursuing more than 100 bachelor's, master’s, doctoral and professional degrees in liberal arts and sciences, engineering and computer science, business, education, health and human services. A top-ranked university with an inclusive campus community, faculty devoted to teaching and students committed to achievement, ��-Dearborn has been shaped by its history of partnering with industry and community leaders, and is committed to finding solutions for today’s most pressing challenges.

Coronavirus

Coronavirus Communications

Environmental Health and Safety

Off

Fri, 04/23/2021 - 15:20

The university plans a robust return to campus this fall, with most classes taught fully in person or in hybrid fashion and a return of on-campus student support services, co-curricular activities and campus services.

HVAC tweaks are adding an extra layer of COVID safety

lblouin — Mon, 12 Apr 2021 14:09:18 +0000

HVAC tweaks are adding an extra layer of COVID safety lblouin Mon, 04/12/2021 - 10:09

Beyond engaging in the pastime of griping about the thermostat setting, you probably never used to think much about your office HVAC system. Now, with more faculty and staff returning to work and teach on campus this fall, those systems that move air around our buildings suddenly have our attention. In fact, whether the campus’ HVAC systems are up to the challenge of keeping our office environments “safe” is one of the most asked questions about our return to campus planning. So we wanted to take a minute and break down the key issues, including some of the big steps our facilities teams have taken to make the indoor environment safer.

While indoors, your most important layers of protection have nothing to do with HVAC

Before we get into the weeds of MERV filter ratings and how many “air exchanges per hour” is enough, it’s worth pointing out that HVAC systems aren’t our most powerful tools to fight transmission of coronavirus. The combination of social distancing, mask wearing and widespread vaccination is far more relevant to reducing transmission, namely because coronavirus spreads mostly through close personal contact. So if you’re in the office and you and your colleagues are all masked and socially distanced, you’ve already greatly reduced your risk. Get a vaccination and your safety outlook is even better, as the CDC is now saying it’s OK for fully vaccinated folks to gather indoors as long as everyone is wearing a mask and social distancing. Now, imagine this all happening in an environment where case numbers are way down from where they are today, which is expected once vaccination rates hit a certain threshold. (At the current pace of vaccination, we’re on track to have every adult in the U.S. vaccinated by June 26.) Taken together, that starts to make returning to campus look much more comfortable. This isn’t to say that HVAC systems can’t still play a role, but in the context of all the tools we have to fight transmission, they’re more of a supplemental layer of protection.

Facilities teams have improved ventilation and filtration in every campus building

That said, every layer of protection makes a difference, and campus facilities teams have taken numerous steps to improve indoor air safety in campus buildings. As you probably know, outdoor air can be a big help when it comes to safety, and the CDC has recommended increasing “outside air” ratios in HVAC systems when possible. On our campus, our lab buildings already run on 100 percent outside air. This means that air inside the building is continually pumped out and replaced with all new air drawn from the outside that is then filtered and conditioned. In some of our buildings, using 100 percent outside air is not possible most times of the year, simply because their heating and cooling systems weren’t designed to condition and continually turn over such large volumes of air while still maintaining desired temperature and humidity levels. However, some outside air is always part of the intake mix in every campus building. And perhaps most importantly, 100 percent of the air circulating in every single building is filtered using MERV-15 filters. That’s one to two levels higher than the current CDC recommendation. Moreover, the number of “air changes per hour” has been increased to 5 to 6, in line with CDC recommendations. That means all the air that ends up inside your office is being fully filtered and replaced every 10 to 12 minutes. As an additional step, facilities teams are also firing up ventilation systems to 100 percent capacity a full two hours before building openings.

What about opening windows and personal air purifiers?

So if more outside air is a good thing, does that mean we should all be opening windows in our offices if the weather is nice? This is a little counterintuitive, but the answer is definitely not. The reason is that HVAC building systems are designed to run with the windows closed, and introducing variables — like a bunch of open windows — can actually make their sophisticated ventilation and filtration systems less effective. Personal air purifiers are also a hot topic right now, but their use during the pandemic is most relevant in spaces that are poorly ventilated or don’t have any ventilation at all. So with our building HVAC systems now operating at or above recommended standards, personal air purifiers aren’t necessary.

###

Want to learn more? Check out the full set of COVID-19 HVAC Guidelines we’re following to keep our facilities healthy and safe.

Coronavirus

Coronavirus Communications

Health and Wellness

University-wide

Facilities Operations

Off

Mon, 04/12/2021 - 14:02

��-Dearborn’s facilities teams are going beyond recommended standards in some cases to ease folks' nerves about returning to the office.

Coronavirus Communications

University leaders discuss winter COVID situation at town hall

Winter 2022 is not winter 2021

How Omicron is — and isn’t — changing things

Masking

Be kind, be flexible

How the pandemic experience is pushing teaching into the future

What Research Surrounding COVID Vaccination Ethics Tells Us

Takeaways from the September 16 town hall

The latest vaccine and compliance numbers look really good

The plan for the rest of fall (and winter)

Other good-to-knows

What you need to know about the university’s vaccine requirement compliance plan

The student policy

The faculty and staff policy

Vaccination and testing clinics

Enforcement of the masking policy

The bottom line

Takeaways from the Aug. 11 Town Hall

The latest on Delta, breakthrough cases and vaccine safety

So given the risks from new variants, why don't we just stay remote?

So how are we going to enforce the vaccine and face covering policies?

Other good-to-knows

COVID-19 vaccination will be required on ������-Dearborn campus

University of Michigan-Dearborn announces innovative and flexible approach to safety for the Fall 2021 semester: COVID vaccine or testing requirement

HVAC tweaks are adding an extra layer of COVID safety

While indoors, your most important layers of protection have nothing to do with HVAC

Facilities teams have improved ventilation and filtration in every campus building

What about opening windows and personal air purifiers?

COVID-19 vaccination will be required on ��-Dearborn campus