COVID-19 Campus Challenge

In preparation for the Fall 2020 semester, the University of Michigan is seeking ways to best adapt to social distancing measures while providing students with a high quality educational experience. The COVID-19 Campus Challenge is one method we are using to collect student voices. The purpose of the Challenge is to encourage student input and to develop creative solutions that allow for a public health-informed fall semester with as much in-person instruction as possible.

Overview

Over the past few months, students have experienced many changes- a transition to remote learning, the inability to directly socialize with friends, the abrupt ending of co-curricular experiences, the cancellation of summer internships, and an uncertainty for the future. In response to these challenges, this program was created by students for students.  

U-M would like creative ideas directly from students on how to create a safe and fruitful educational environment. Students will have the ability to sign up for a topic for which they can create solutions. Student teams will work together to develop ideas on how to solve one of these needs. 

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 share their solutions with administrators. All top projects will be selected to participate in our COVID-19 Campus Challenge Showcase. Projects in the Showcase have the potential to be implemented into the Ann Arbor Campus. Participants will also have opportunities to provide feedback to U-M administrators post-Challenge. 

Rest assured, U-M’s public health experts are hard at work to build solutions to meet our goal to allow for a public health-informed fall semester with as much in-person instruction as possible. But we believe your input is incredibly valuable and that nothing matches the creative, determined mind of our students. While we cannot guarantee that COVID-19 Campus Challenge ideas will be implemented, we hope that you’ll join us in our mission and we look forward to learning about all your projects and ideas.