2023-10-19 by The Michigan Daily

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY THREE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Thursday, October 19, 2023

Ann Arbor, Michigan

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CAMPUS LIFE

Following increased enrollment, UMich becomes the largest university in the state With over 52,000 enrolled students, UMich recently passed MSU

MARISSA CORSI

Daily News Contributor

The University of Michigan is currently the largest public institution in the state in terms of total enrollment. According to the University Record, the University’s fall enrollment reached a total of 52,065 matriculated students, a 2% increase from 2022. Despite declining statewide and national postsecondary enrollment trends following the pandemic, the University received a record 93,745 applications and admitted its largest-ever incoming class of 7,466 ﬁrst-year students and 1,414 transfer students. As the campus continues to increase in student body size, The Michigan Daily spoke with students about their thoughts and concerns on housing, class sizes, and student resources as they navigate a University more than 52,000 strong. Housing accommodations and shortages LSA freshman Maryam Altayeb told The Daily she wasn’t shocked by the record-breaking numbers. “Honestly, I’m not that surprised,” Altayeb said. “I’ve heard about a lot of people this year who didn’t get any dorm placements, even freshmen or sophomores who are usually given priority.” While the University does not guarantee housing to returning students, freshmen are guaranteed a form of housing if they are a part of the 97% of first-year students who choose to live on campus. However, the University had to convert lounges

into dorm rooms to accomodate 40 students this fall, reflecting an increased strain on U-M living spaces. After living in the dorms for her freshman year, LSA junior Ashlyn Coombs told The Daily she now lives with their now-graduated sister as a sophomore. Coombs said the University should also generally provide more guidance and assistance to students for securing housing.. “The housing prices are quite absurd,” Coombs said. “We already pay the University so much in tuition. … I do think that the University should be more responsible for getting its students places to live.” Large class sizes and office hours access While many students expressed concerns for increased housing difficulties, others pointed to the academic challenges higher enrollment and subsequent larger class sizes may pose for U-M students. In fact, Fall 2023 saw the computer science major implement a majorspecific application for all those applying to the University, as a result of increased interest and enrollment in the major. LSA junior Tomas Garcia Lavanchy said the notoriously large class sizes of computer science courses prevent beneficial one-on-one communication between students and instructors. “I have office hours that I’ll go (to where) I’ll enter the queue at the very beginning and sometimes I won’t even get seen just because that’s how big the classes are,” Garcia Lavanchy said. “It’s much less personal time

with the teachers and getting to know them.” Engineering freshman Yasmeen Almahmoud spoke on similar concerns with The Daily by referencing another infamously large class, CHEM 210, U-M’s entry-level organic chemistry course taken by students with interest in pre-med and biological sciences. “It’s a really big class, so it’s kind of hard asking questions during class,” Almahmoud said. “And it’s kind of hard to remember what questions you wanted to ask in that particular moment.” Altayeb, who is also taking CHEM 210, spoke with The Daily about the course’s office hours, which comparatively presents a much more accessible option for students than computer science courses. Altayeb said she commends the course’s consistent and lengthy office hours options.. “We have office hours for four hours every single week with the professors themselves,” Altayeb said. “So I feel like it’s pretty accessible.” In 2022, the student-to-faculty ratio at the University was 15-to1. This remains on par with the national average of 14-to-1 for four-year public universities. Still, Garcia Lavanchy said the occasional disproportionately large classes pose a challenge to students in interacting with professors and vice versa. They called for the University to hire more Graduate Student Instructors to ease the situation in these large classes. “More GSIs means more individual time with instructors,” Lavanchy said. “I know the

NEWS

Over 1,000 community members hold vigil after attacks on Israel

Participants walked from Hillel to the Diag to mourn the lives lost KATE WEILAND & SHANNON STOCKING Co-Editors in Chief

Content warning: this article contains mentions of violence. The University of Michigan community gathered on the Diag Monday night for a vigil following the attacks on Israel Saturday. More than 1,000 campus community members attended the event, gathering in support of the lives lost following the attacks. On Saturday morning, Hamas troops carried out a planned attack on Israel, first firing rockets into the country and then carrying out attacks by land, sea and air, according to the New York Times. The attack infiltrated 22 cities in Israel and by Sunday morning, officials reported 700 Israelis as dead after the attacks, with an estimated 150 other civilians and soldiers held hostage. Israel formally declared war against Hamas on Sunday and carried out an air attack on the Gaza Strip neighborhood Tuesday morning. Officials on Tuesday reported over 900 deaths in Gaza and over 1,000 deaths in Israel. The attack targeted buildings and forced Palestinians to find shelter in the 25-mile Gaza Strip, with the war continuing to escalate. The war has claimed the lives of soldiers and civilians on both sides and is the result of over twocenturies of conflict. Attendees gathered at Hillel Tuesday to walk to the Diag. According to attendees, students, faculty and community members in attendance were escorted by the Ann Arbor Police Department. Speakers included students and rabbis from the Jewish Resource

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Center, Chabad House of Ann Arbor and Hillel. They spoke on their personal experiences and ties to Israel and led prayers for those held in captivity. Hillel International released a statement about the attacks on Sunday, which was reposted by the Michigan Hillel Instagram. “We are devastated as we awake to the news of this horrific attack on the Jewish homeland and the Israeli people,” the statement read. “The photos, videos, and headlines we are seeing are shocking and heartbreaking, and our hearts and prayers are with all the people of Israel today. We are also thinking about our many Hillel colleagues and students in Israel, the many Israelis working on our Hillel teams, and the thousands of Israeli students we serve at Hillels on campuses in North America and around the world. We are here for you.” Attendees at the event gathered for a moment of silence to honor those who have lost their lives to the conflict, which was followed by the singing of Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem. LSA junior Sari Rosenberg

attended the event and spoke with The Michigan Daily about the support she felt from the University community at the vigil, from the initial gathering at Hillel to the Diag full of people. “It brought tears to my eyes to see how many people came,” Rosenberg said. “I’ve never seen so many Jews in (Hillel). It was really great that we were able to provide such a healing space for people and I think there were a lot of tears and a lot of emotions, but it was really powerful to see everyone come together, cancel their plans, and for people to reflect on what was happening and come together in solidarity. As the crowd grew when we came to the Diag and met more people who were there, it was just a really beautiful thing.” Rachel Cusnir, Co-President of Wolverine for Israel, helped to organize the event and spoke at the vigil. In an interview with The Daily, Cusnir said she was overwhelmed by the turnout at the event and felt reassured by the support from the community. Read more at michigandaily.com

GEORGIA MCKAY/Daily Students gather on the Diag for a community Vigil after the attacks in Israel.

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University makes a whole lot of money, so they could spare to be a little bit more generous with what they have.” Student organization meeting spaces Students also discussed how their experience with student organizations might be affected by the increased enrollment. As of fall 2023, more than 1,700 student organizations and opportunities for campus involvement exist on campus. Almahmoud spoke about her introductory experiences with Festifall, the Center for Campus Involvement’s annual student organization fair hosted on the Diag. “It was kind of overwhelming,” Almahmoud said. “But I think it’s kind of easy to access those clubs or get in contact with (them). … It makes sense that (they) need to be

there to show the new students.” Despite enjoying access to a variety of unique communities within the University, students and student organizations still feel the effects of a growing enrollment. Engineering junior Erin Clingerman, a member of the Michigan Taekwondo Club, told The Daily many student organizations struggle with a lack of physical space for meetings on campus. “We don’t entirely fit in our practice space all the time now,” Clingerman said. “And I just don’t think there’s anything bigger at the moment.” Both Clingerman and Garcia Lavanchy are also on the board for the Michigan Games and Cards club, which Garcia Lavanchy said had to shift their procedures for hosting events in response to the

growing student population. “(The University) changed the renting reservations … so that we can only get one room per day, pretty much, for five hours, which is not enough for how big of a club it is,” Lavanchy said. “There are so many people that want the space, and there’s not enough of it.” Financial aid and student resources In allignment with rising enrollment, the University’s offers of monetary aid increased by $18 million. In an email to The Daily, University spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald expressed that the University upholds financial and physical commitments during the process of determining U-M enrollment. Read more at michigandaily.com

NEWS

SAFE protests UMich administration response to IsraelHamas War at President’s House

Students and community members advocated for President Ono to acknowledge Palestinian perspectives SEJAL PATIL & SNEHA DHANDAPANI

Daily News Editor & Daily Staff Reporter

Content warning: this article contains mentions of violence. About 300 University of Michigan students and community members gathered outside the President’s House Friday afternoon to protest the Oct. 10 statement released by University President Santa Ono in response to the ongoing IsraelHamas war. Demonstrators said they were protesting in part because Ono’s statement did not include any mention of Palestine or the Palestinians who had been killed or displaced by the Israeli government. The sit-in was organized by the University’s chapter of Students Allied for Freedom and Equality in collaboration with the United Asian American Organizations, Graduate Employees’ Organization, Arab Student Association and Young Democratic Socialists of America. Israeli warplanes have been bombing the Gaza Strip since Tuesday, in response to a planned attack by Hamas last Saturday which killed more than 1,000 people and took over 100 hostages. Following the attack on Israel last Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war on Hamas on Oct. 8. Over the next week, the Israeli military carried out a series of land and air attacks which killed at least 2,288 people in Gaza and wounded more than 8,714 others. As of Saturday, the death and injury toll on both sides

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INDEX

LILA TURNER/Daily Ann Arbor City Council candidate Dr. Mozhgan Savabieasfahani leads a crowd down South University St in support of Palestine and in protest of Santa Ono’s statement on the Israel-Palestine conflict Friday afternoon.ence on Mackinac Island Saturday.

continues to rise following almost a week of heavy fighting and attacks. On Friday, the Israeli military called for Gaza Strip residents to evacuate their homes, in anticipation of an expected ground invasion, displacing over 1 million people. Israel also halted the entry of food, water, most electricity and medical supplies into Gaza, in a “total blockade” in response to the attacks last Saturday. The sit-in started at the President’s House with the protestors uniting in their chants: “Ono, Ono, you can’t hide, you need to mention Palestine,” “Resistance is justified when people are occupied”, among many more chants. The protest moved north up South State Street around to the Diag with the Ann Arbor Police Department escorting the protest by blockading the streets. The crowd then returned to the President’s House for the sit-in portion of the protest, to sit outside the front lawn listening to the

organizers’ statements. An Arab Student Association member at the protest, who has requested anonymity for fear of retribution for sharing their support for Palestine, said in an interview with The Michigan Daily that a number of students have felt unsafe on campus after being harassed for their support of Palestine in public and on social media. “(The Arab Student Association has) put up posters to provide context about the war that’s going on, that’s been declared, and they’ve been ripped down, we’ve been flipped off,” they said. “(Ono’s statement) very clearly made every student on this campus, Muslim or anyone who’s pro-Palestine, scared to speak out … We don’t want to get flipped off on campus for wearing a keffiyeh or hijab or wearing a necklace that has a Palestinian map, or anything like that.”

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