School budget makers across Michigan are eyeing cuts to employees, salaries and transportation among other things, as they work through the revenue crash caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The two largest sources of state money to the School Aid Fund, sales and income taxes, have fallen sharply during the shutdown, leaving a budget hole that could reach almost $2.4 billion over the next two years, according to state estimates. Educators are pleading for federal help, but nothing is certain yet, except that state law requires districts to submit adopt a balanced budget by July 1. "I expect layoff notices will be going out to teachers," said Michael Addonizio, a professor of education policy at Wayne State University. "If they're not going out right now, they soon will be in the absence of an aid package. You'd certainly see layoffs of support staff, you are going to lose guidance counselors, librarians, attendance officers, school psychologists. I think it would be unavoidable. Teaching staff reductions would be unavoidable." Addonizio serves on the School Finance Research Collaborative, a task force looking to reform Michigan school funding. He said schools have faced budget struggles before and received federal aid, but this time is different. "The only thing approaching it was the cut the schools took in 2011, when federal emergency aid to the districts expired and the state foundation allowance was cut by $470," Addonizio said. "That was astonishing at the time." Addonizio said he expects Congress to pass something, but in the meantime, districts are preparing for cuts. 

As the pandemic continues, theaters struggle to stay on board this ever rocking ship. Every week it seems communities change and adjust to the “new normal”. But what are the effects of COVID-19 on theaters? How can an industry and a community entirely driven by large groups of people change to customize themselves to fit into the new social distance mold? As Director of Marketing and Audience Engagement at Wayne State University, Thomas Karr says “Our function is the same, but our tools will be different.” For the Bonstelle and Hilberry theaters, these different tools include live streaming, recording and sharing skits and dances, putting together live, in person outside events in parking lots and on campus, as well as drive-by events. Dance and theater students of Wayne State University have created and led virtual events on Facebook and Youtube. These events have received a far greater number of viewers than events produced within their theaters before the pandemic. This new way of production brings a new hope and excitement to the community that is already so intent on sharing stories and art. Soon to be chairperson of the Department of Theater and Dance at Wayne State University, Mary Anderson says, “They have been so resilient. But at the same time I grieve their losses. This time has been incredibly disruptive and alienating for them.”

Months after it began, the coronavirus outbreak that swept through Detroit and the rest of the country continues to rage. While there are mixed opinions on how quickly the crisis is actually receding, local leaders have already started to consider how the city begins to bounce back. At Wayne State University, which since March has been holding remote and online classes only (as well as a virtual graduation that was livestreamed), President M. Roy Wilson and Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Keith E. Whitfield are among those carefully charting the city’s recovery and weighing the prospects of students’ physical return to campus in the fall. Although their plans are still taking shape, Wilson and Whitfield agreed to sit down for a Q&A for the Michigan Chronicle to discuss how WSU is faring amid the outbreak, the factors driving any potential decision to return to campus and their concerns that the recent unrest over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in combination with relaxed social distancing practices could usher in another spike in COVID-19 infections.

Keith Whitfield, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, wrote an opinion piece regarding the return to campus in light of the pandemic. “In the fall, we will offer a mix of in-person, remote and online classes. What proportion of which will be determined by July 15. By then, we should have more information about the progression of the virus, and a determination of which classes would best be held on campus vs done remotely. In the end our decision will be based on science and a full commitment to protecting the health and safety of our campus community. Despite the understandable trepidation you may feel about returning to campus — or even continuing your college education — now.

A quickly retracted study that found a higher death rate among COVID-19 patients treated with hydroxychloroquine has deepened controversy over the drug worldwide and in Michigan. At least one local health system continues to use the drug while others have abandoned it. Many health care institutions, including the World Health Organization, suspended clinical trials of the drug touted by President Donald Trump after the faulty study was published in the British medical journal The Lancet on May 22. The WHO restarted the trials about a week ago. The observational study of about 96,000 patients hospitalized worldwide with the coronavirus concluded that patients who were treated with hydroxychloroquine had a greater chance of death and heart rhythm problems than those who did not receive the drug. The politicization of medical studies was dismissed by Michael Rybak, a professor of pharmacy and medicine at Wayne State University and the primary investigator on a current study that's trying to determine the optimum dose of hydroxychloroquine for treating COVID-19 patients. In the midst of a worldwide pandemic, he said, doctors were grasping at straws, using an unproven treatment without really knowing if it would benefit or harm patients. "The journals have a lot at stake as well," Rybak said, noting that the publications' reputations are based on the quality of the research they publish. "It was important to get the information out as fast as possible to the prescribing clinicians so they know what to do next because there was no information," he said. "(Journals) are trying to get the information out as fast as possible because they know we're at an hour of need." 

Julie Wargo Aikins, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences, Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute, wrote an article for The Conversation. “As the weather has warmed in my Midwestern town, my neighborhood is full of children on bicycles pretending to be riding through the Wild West. I can’t walk down the sidewalk without stepping on chalk drawings or hopscotch boards. There are children jumping rope and playing ball. In the eight years I’ve lived here, I’ve never witnessed this before. As a clinical psychologist who studies children’s friendships, I am fascinated by this development. Children’s social worlds have been upended by the suspension of school and extracurricular activities due to the pandemic. Many older children and adolescents have been able to maintain their friendships over social media. But, for younger children, this approach is less likely to be available to them and less likely to meet their social needs. In some places, a silver lining of COVID-19 may well be the resurgence of childhood friendships in American neighborhoods.”

The demand for PPE may surge as such large institutions as Michigan's public universities prepare to resume on-campus, in-person classes in the fall. Wayne State University, for example, has ordered 62,000 reusable face masks from Office Depot in  preparation for the fall semester. The university aims to provide students, staff and faculty with a small supply of PPE, and also is considering installing PPE vending machines on campus, said Ken Doherty, associate vice president for procurement and business services. For now, the university is stocked up on hand sanitizer and dispensers. Doherty and other stakeholders have daily conversations about PPE to work through new issues raised as they contemplate a return to school. One example: how to ensure that hearing-impaired students who rely on lip-reading are not at a disadvantage. "Beyond that, we're pretty darn comfortable with where we're at," he said.

When Bertie Greer, an associate dean at the Mike Ilitch School of Business at Wayne State University who studies diversity within companies, tuned into a news conference featuring Mayor Mike Duggan and nine executives of Detroit's largest companies, she was surprised to see just how many business leaders were in attendance, and that their words moved beyond the usual language of diversity being good for their bottom line. Instead, they focused more on their impact on the community. This moment felt different to her. “Prior to this crisis, executives were too afraid to upset the other half, and instead made the economic case for diversity,” Greer said. “There’s a crisis, everyone gets upset, we hire (more diverse employees), and then nothing else is done.”

In a recent survey of 262 colleges and universities, the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers found that nearly 60 percent are considering or have decided to remain completely online this fall. "The restart is far more complex than the shutdown because there are so many different scenarios," said Michael Wright, vice president of communications and chief of staff at Wayne State University. WSU is trying to plan for a variety of unknowns, Wright said, including having far fewer students returning in the fall or more students than expected showing up. “We know people will be uncomfortable even if the governor says it's OK to open, and we've heard from students who want to get back in the classroom," Wright said. Either way, he said, WSU will be back in business come September. "We're Wayne State Warriors, and we hope to get back on campus." During a recent Zoom luncheon, Wayne State President M. Roy Wilson told students and alumni the school created a restart committee with nine subcommittees that are examining housing, dining services, testing recommendations and more. The university will be designating space in residence halls for students needing quarantine. Understanding the importance of the college experience, Wayne State's plans to welcome incoming freshmen include virtual small groups that allow students to connect before school reopens. "We are going to be guided by what's safe," Wilson said. "I want to be sure I can look any parent in the eye and say, 'Your child will be safe.'"

Wayne State University’s Board of Governors unanimously agreed Friday to a proposal by President M. Roy Wilson not to increase tuition for undergraduate and graduate students for 2020-21. “It has been a difficult decision for the Board of Governors to freeze tuition for the coming year,” board chair Marilyn Kelly said in a statement. “Two of our most crushing worries have been, first, that in freezing tuition, the board forces the university to confront a budget shortfall of as much as $60 million. Second, we render the university all the more challenged to meet the goals we’ve set of making Wayne University an even better learning center for minorities and the financially underprivileged to gain a quality education." Wilson said there will be some budget cuts, noting that the university relies on tuition as one of its two main funding sources, with the other being state aid. “There will be some financial pain,” he said. “It’s too early to say specifically what the budget deficit will be. There are still too many unknown variables. We don’t know how long the pandemic will last or its impact on enrollment and our state appropriation."

The killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery in recent weeks have exposed deep wounds inflicted by the nation’s long legacy of racism. They have also triggered protests across the country against police brutality and long-standing policies and attitudes that have marginalized Black and other communities of color. The AAMC invited 13 leaders and learners in academic medicine to share their thoughts on the events of the past week, the complicity of medicine in perpetuating inequities, and the role of students, physicians, and academic medical institutions in helping to heal the nation. Wayne State University President M. Roy Wilson, also is a member of the Michigan Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities and former chair of the AAMC Board of Directors. “Here's an astonishing statistic. A Black man today has a 1 in 1,000 chance of being killed by law enforcement. That’s 10,000 out of 10 million. The reason I use 10 million is that's the population of Michigan. Michigan had a little over 5,000 deaths from COVID-19, and it has been one of the hardest hit states during the pandemic. But that's still only half the number of Black boys who will die if nothing is done to address this issue of police brutality against Black men. To be honest, as a young man, I probably had a bit of a chip on my shoulder, and any Black man my age has had numerous encounters with law enforcement. So, the fact that I'm here now, I feel like I'm a survivor, because these encounters definitely could have gone in a different direction. [At Wayne State], we just created a National De-escalation Training Center for law enforcement. When the Dallas Police Department, for example, did de-escalation training, they had an 18% decrease in excessive use of force in one year and an 80% decrease over seven years, so that’s hugely positive. I've been looking at these pictures of these protests, and in some cities, there are more White people protesting than Black. This hit a nerve with all kinds of people. They are out there saying they don't want this kind of “justice” anymore, they really want to see a change in this country. That gives me a lot of hope.

President M. Roy Wilson was a guest on The Glenn Beck program, a nationally syndicated talk show that is carried on more than 500 radio stations. Wilson spoke with host Glenn Beck about the National De-escalation Training Center which was established on campus earlier this year. Click :”Best of The Program | Guests: Larry Elder, M. Roy Wilson, & Lara Logan | 6/3/20”

The nationwide US protests for racial justice are giving Joe Biden, sidelined for over two months by the coronavirus pandemic, the opportunity to reclaim the spotlight and display a contrasting leadership style to that of his November election opponent President Donald Trump. Jeffrey Grynaviski, a political science professor at Wayne State University, said the election is likely to be a "turnout battle" – decided on which party can mobilize more voters. Grynaviski noted that African-Americans turned out in much smaller numbers for Hillary Clinton in 2016 than they did for Obama, and the question is whether they will go to the polls for Biden. "My inclination is to say that Donald Trump's rhetoric over the last week is probably going to promote black support for Biden," he said, although his history with the crime bill works against him. 

The novel coronavirus’ grip on Michigan has loosened in recent weeks amid a steady decline in the daily rate of new confirmed infections. On Tuesday, Michigan recorded just 199 new cases. But as front-line workers emerge from months of warlike chaos in their workplaces, mental health experts are already noticing a massive surge in mental health needs among a traumatized workforce. After Wayne State University’s School of Social Work and College of Nursing launched a mental health hotline for traumatized doctors, nurses, and other first responders in the early days of Michigan’s COVID-19 experience, a common theme emerged in the calls, said Suzanne Brown, an associate professor in social work at the school: Front-line workers are suspended in a state of stress that is both “acute and chronic.” Hospital staff and first responders are used to dealing with crises. But typically, they address the immediate need — an emergency surgery, a horrific accident scene — and move on to a new task. But with COVID-19, Brown said, the trauma lingers along with the pandemic. “That sense of not knowing when it’s going to end leaves very little room for people to recover,” she said.

The desperately ill patients who deluged the emergency room at Detroit Medical Center in March and April exhibited the telltale symptoms of the coronavirus: high fevers and infection-riddled lungs that left them gasping for air. With few treatment options, doctors turned to a familiar intervention: broad-spectrum antibiotics, the shot-in-the-dark medications often used against bacterial infections that cannot be immediately identified. They knew antibiotics are not effective against viruses, but they were desperate, and they feared the patients could be vulnerable to life-threatening secondary bacterial infections as well. “During the peak surge, our antibiotic use was off the charts,” said Dr. Teena Chopra, the hospital’s director of epidemiology and antibiotic stewardship, who estimated that more than 80 percent of arriving patients were given antimicrobial drugs. “At one point, we were afraid we would run out.” Chopra and other doctors across the country who liberally dispensed antibiotics in the early weeks of the pandemic said they soon realized their mistake. “Many physicians were inappropriately giving antibiotics because, honestly, they had limited choices,” she said. Chopra estimated that up to a third of coronavirus patients who died at the hospital were killed by opportunistic pathogens like C. difficile, a pernicious infection that causes uncontrolled diarrhea and is increasingly resistant to antibiotics. That figure, she said, was quite likely heightened by the poor underlying health of patients who also had diabetes or hypertension or were obese. “Even before Covid hit, our population in Detroit was very vulnerable to drug-resistant infections,” said Chopra, a professor of infectious diseases at Wayne State University.

The novel coronavirus pandemic – and subsequent stay-at-home orders — have taught Michiganders how to interact in different ways. For many, the recent protests have only added to anxiety and increased social isolation. To help residents improve their mental health, Wayne State University is offering free online counseling sessions with psychology and counseling students. Lauren Mangus, professor of psychology, oversees the program. She says the world has changed and it can be difficult to adapt to a new way of living. “Life as it once was, it’s completely changed for so many of us. Not to mention the emotional psychological bandwidth that’s being taxed for many of us right now.” On dealing with grief when gatherings were limited: “Grief is really complex. It’s really difficult because it’s a very personalized, individualized process. But it is never completely finalized. But at the same time when we have different ways to celebrate life, and celebrate loved ones, and to get that support can really help us through the grieving process. So that is really complicated.

Wayne State President M. Roy Wilson spoke with WJR host Paul W. Smith about the establishment of the National De-escalation Training Center on campus.

Wayne State University announced the creation of a National De-escalation Training Center. The headquarters will be on its campus. The Wayne State police department says its officers are already being trained in de-escalation methods. Tony Holt, chief of police for Wayne State University,  says the de-escalation training is different from a one-size-fits-all approach to de-escalation training. “You want to let the person know, now I understand what kind of promise you have, and you can see, individually, what this person is going through, and to help you understand what those next steps are to take,” he says. Holt says officers are trained to break people down into 16 main personality types, each having their own subgroups. Officers are trained to recognize these personality types based on behavior, and can more effectively address the problem. He says it won’t be easy for officers to earn community trust, something he says is understandable since people are rightfully upset about police brutality. “And I think the timing is good because it’s going to cause you to work extra hard to get that buy-in. And this is not an overnight, you’re not going to build trust overnight. The community and the citizens want to see this in action,” says Holt.

Arash Javanbakht, associate professor of psychiatry, updated a Jan. 11, 2020 article he wrote for The Conversation about how the human brain can be  manipulated to tribalism during the politics of fear and racism. “Tribalism has become a signature of America within and without since the election of President Trump. The nation has parted ways with international allies, left the rest of the world in their effort to fight the climate change, and most recently the pandemic, by leaving the World Health Organization. Even the pandemic was not a serious issue of importance to our leaders. We did not care much about what was happening in the rest of the world, as opposed to the time of previous pandemics when we were on the ground in those countries helping block the progress so long as it was China’s or the European Union’s problem. This marks drastic change from previous U.S. altruistic attitude, including during the World War II.” Javanbakht continued: “The irony of evolution is that while those attached to tribal ideologies of racism and nationalism perceive themselves as superior to others, in reality they are acting on a more primitive, less evolved and more animal level.”

John Mogk, professor of law specializing in urban law and policy, wrote an opinion piece about structural racism. “The wanton killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the civil disturbances following were a predictable repetition of Detroit's rebellion in 1967 when the largest civil disturbance in American history was triggered by the abuse of African Americans by a police force that mostly was all-white. The Michigan National Guard and 82nd and 101st  Airborne Divisions of the U.S. Army were required to regain control of the city. Forty-three people died and hundreds of millions in today's dollars in property damages was caused  Notwithstanding the magnitude of the rebellion, the abject discrimination revealed a need for federal intervention as the country failed to learn a lesson. The root of the problem then, as it is now, is structural racism, and white police officer abuse of African Americans is merely one stark manifestation of it. Structural racism has its origin in slavery and fosters public policies, institutional practices and cultural representations that work to reinforce racial inequality for African Americans. Too many white police officers view African Americans with suspicion, interpret their actions as threatening and are quick to disregard their human rights.”