Dear U-M Students,
In preparation for the Fall 2020 semester, the University of Michigan is working towards solutions to allow for a public health-informed semester with as much in-person instruction as possible. Hoping to help create change, David Chang and Sujai Arakali, two students from the College of Engineering, put together a proposal to include the student voice in reopening activities. In collaboration, the College of Engineering and Student Life have developed an infrastructure to collect and manage creative ideas directly from students on how to create a safe and fruitful educational environment. This is where the COVID-19 Campus Challenge comes in.
The COVID-19 Campus Challenge is open to all University of Michigan students. Students can sign up for a Challenge project topic and work together in teams to develop ideas on how to solve it. Throughout the process, students will have expert mentors to support them. At the end of the Challenge, the University will evaluate the ideas proposed by students through a panel of judges. Teams with feasible projects will then have the opportunity to work with administrators to help implement their proposed changes before Fall 2020.
-Housing
-Transportation
-Food Insecurity
-Mental Health
-Co-Curricular
-Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
You can form your own team, or you can join the challenge’s Facebook group to find other interested students. If you’d rather not use Facebook, you can also be matched with other team members based on your topic preferences when you sign up for the Challenge.
To learn more about this opportunity or to become involved please visit covidcampuschallenge.engin.umich.edu or email covidcampuschallenge@umich.edu.
We hope that you’re excited to join us in our mission to create a safe and public health-informed campus!
Best,
Laura Blake Jones, Dean of Students
Jeanne Pearl Murabito, Executive Director for Student Affairs