Not MI Campus is a coalition of student organizers from universities across the state of Michigan demanding changes be made to the unjust and unsafe reopening plans of many Michigan schools.


Our Demands:

1. Universal Optional Online Learning
We demand an online option be available for every class offered Fall 2020 and that U-M provide resources (such as but not limited to internet, computers, hot spots, access to instruments for music students, etc.) to make virtual classes accessible for all students, staff, and faculty.

2. Tuition Cuts and Financial Aid
As stated in the One University Proposal (tinyurl.com/oneuproposal), the Go Blue Guarantee would cost about $3.3 million in Flint and $10.8 million in Dearborn, totaling about $14.1 million (based on current student populations and income levels). We hereby call on U-M administration to not only repeal the 1.9% and 3.9% tuition increases and initiate a 10% reduction of tuition and related fees for all three campuses, but to also prioritize the Go Blue Guarantee in their efforts to equitably support all U-M students. Financial aid packages must not be decreased when tuition is decreased.

3. Guaranteed Protections for Campus/Student workers
Protections for all U-M employees such as significantly increased allocation of paid sick leave, paid family leave, paid medical leave as well as continued supply of face masks/coverings by and for campus departments requiring in-person work. This should hold true even for departments and roles where in-person is optional due to U-M’s use of tactics in which people are often given an option, but are incentivized or coerced to work in-person. Students and workers should be notified of resources available to them with such resources, like the Child Care Subsidy (https://finaid.umich.edu/child-care-subsidy/), receiving increased support.

4. Safe Housing for All Students
Every on-campus student must be able to live in a single room and be provided PPE for no extra cost. U-M must be up front and transparent with available testing data, alerts, virus safety information based on halls, classes, buildings, cafeterias, hybrid, in person classes, and more. U-M must take responsibility for safety in its dorms by not placing the burden of safety on individuals who are subject to the actions of their community members. U-M must take responsibility for the safety and living expenses of Resident Assistants. U-M must connect students living off campus to food and safety resources.

Furthermore, we demand that U-M remove the “Hold Harmless” clause to Community Living at Michigan contracts as the clause removes liability from U-M for possible COVID infection and implies that U-M has the authority to terminate housing contracts due to testing positive for COVID. U-M already contributes to housing insecurity in the communities in which it exists and this clause only further harms vulnerable students. While this may remove University liability, it causes additional harm to community members who are already sick. Instead U-M must offer safe quarantine options for all students, staff, and faculty who test positive.

If U-M is to move to completely virtual classes, U-M must provide safe and acceptable housing options for all students who have, up until this point, been reliant upon university housing. U-M must not leave its community members stranded without housing accommodations.

5. Food Justice
For students who live on or near campus, consistent access to food is essential to a healthy academic environment. While campuses are shut down, many students who relied on campus food pantries or cafeterias for the majority of their meals will no longer have access to those meals. It is U-M's responsibility to provide adequate access to food for all its students. While U-M's food pantries remain open during this time, most students are unaware due to lack of advertising and focus towards the pantries. Most of their shelves are also filled with voluntary donations, which run short during a period in which more and more students barely have enough to feed themselves, let alone donate to their local pantry. U-M must provide proper funding to all three of their campus' pantries so they can restock their shelves regularly with food (including fresh produce) and other essential products, such as cooking utensils, hygiene products, and menstrual products.

6. Remove Policing from COVID-19 response
U-M Ann Arbor, Flint, and Dearborn campuses have taken steps towards increasing the institution of policing on campus as a response to COVID-19. Recent examples include the “Face Covering Non-Compliance Reporting” form for U-M Flint’s campus and U-M Ann Arbor’s partnership with the AAPD to create a police sanctioned group to patrol around campus. Increasing police encounters and the institution of policing on campus is harmful to community members, specifically BIPOC community members. We demand that U-M stop all COVID policing responses and shift funds allocated for these responses to providing emergency funding for students. We further demand that U-M shift 35% of its public safety/policing budget towards emergency funding for students; specifically Black and Indigenous students for whom it has been shown that COVID has hit the hardest.

7. Treatment
In light of the frankly dangerous decisions that U-M is taking by reopening its campuses, if U-M continues to bring students, staff, and faculty back to campus, it must cover treatment costs for all on-campus students, staff, and faculty should they contract COVID-19. On campus medical services should be provided and available at all three campuses. The COVID-19 pandemic further underscores the need for affordable (and preferably free) clinical care – including testing for the virus – on all three campuses. Cost estimates can be found at tinyurl.com/oneuproposal.

Read our full petition and demands here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10nD5V5-UlLifISdYXPw1hr1z5S72rRgncsJRdMjdabk/edit?usp=sharing

This petition is written and presented in solidarity with various institutions across Michigan and the nation facing similar concerns as their higher education institutions also recklessly move forward toward face-to-face instruction for the 2020-2021 school year. The writer gives permission to campus leaders of other institutions to use the content of this document to petition their own institutions to implement similar demands.
Questions, comments, and/or concerns can be directed to notmicampusumich@gmail.com