Harvard to bring as many as 40 percent of undergrads to campus in fall, but most will stay home

Harvard University officials said Monday that school will invite only 40 percent of undergraduates, including all first-year students, to campus for the fall semester as the number of coronavirus cases continues to increase in most states.

In an email to students, university President Lawrence Bacow, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Claudine Gay, and Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana said officials recognize the "intrinsic incompatibility" between the in-person experience and the need to physically distance amid the pandemic.

"The recent upturn in COVID-19 cases in certain states illustrates the difficulty of making predictions, even well-informed ones, about the evolution of this virus. Given this uncertainty, we determined that our fall plan must enable us to bring back as many students as possible while providing sufficient margin to accommodate an escalation of the prevalence of COVID-19 in our area," the email reads. "Without a vaccine or effective clinical treatments for the virus, we know that no choice that reopens the campus is without risk."

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Students who choose to live on the Ivy League campus will be subject to tight restrictions, among them no off-campus visitors into Harvard buildings, which includes Harvard students residing off-campus.

They will be given their own rooms but will share bathrooms. Students will also be required to sign a pact promising to adhere to health protocols that include viral testing every three days, video training, daily attestations of symptoms, the use of face coverings, limits on gathering sizes and participation in a contact tracing program.

Those who test positive for COVID-19 will be isolated and quarantined in an area equipped to house 250 people.

Officials opted to invite freshmen to reside on the Cambridge, Mass., campus because of the unique transition to college in these unprecedented times.

“They have not yet begun to build their Harvard network of faculty, advisers and friends or learn about life in the Yard,” Bacow, Gay and Khurana wrote. “Even with the many adaptations that will be in place this fall, we see enormous value in having them on campus in our residential system.”

The deadline for freshmen to defer enrollment has been extended through July 24. If the same protocols are in place for the spring term, first-year students would return home so seniors could finish their final term on campus.

In addition to freshmen, other students who meet certain criteria can apply to fill the remaining spots, including those who must be on campus to "progress academically" and those who face technology challenges.

Students living on campus will be required to move out before Thanksgiving and complete their reading and exam periods from home. Those receiving financial aid will have their reward calculated by the college with a “COVID-19 Remote Room and Board” allowance of $5,000 per semester.

Remote learners for the full 2020-21 academic year will be eligible to take two tuition-free courses on campus next summer.

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The fall term begins Sept. 2 but the instructional day will be expanded to accommodate students across multiple time zones. Amid a resurgence in coronavirus cases nationwide, other colleges are choosing to invite only a portion of students back to campus.

Yale University announced last week that a portion of its student body will come back to the Connecticut campus this fall while the rest will be taught remotely.